Memories of a Past and a Future
by T1gerCat
Summary: When Jenna Sommers gets *the* call, she runs home to Mystic Falls to fulfill a promise. Along goes Bella, Jenna's best friend, who has her own past to confront in the vampire infested town. When people begin dropping like flies, a trip down memory lane is in order and no one knows who will survive, let alone fall in love & remember who they are & own up to their past.
1. Chapter 1

**_Memories of a past and a future_**

 ** _A/N:_** So I started a new story! Back to basics with the Vampire Diaries crowd in a re-imagined season 1 with more than a few twists thrown in for good measure. To preface this (and make the timeline clear) the Miranda/Grayson Gilbert deaths occurred just before season 1 by a week at most instead of months. Bella and Jenna are in their mid-twenties and the Twilight part of this story is ten years old. In it Bella met Edward, she fell for him, everything went on as normal until the whole James thing. In this story, Bella smarted up when she woke up broken and bitten in the hospital in Phoenix and called things quit. Are we all on the same page? Yay! Wanna find out what's up now? Keep on reading!

A/N 2: I still own zilch on either fandom. Just my ideas and nothing more.

A/N 3: A huge thank you and a truckload of coffee to DeathDaisy and Ryggrad for being my sounding boards, feeding The Muses That Be and kicking me in the posterior area every time I need to. I love you girls :D

* * *

Chapter 1

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Jenna Sommers breathed right after she broke water and pushed her hair out of her eyes. Next to her, Bella Swan laughed.

"I knew you'd like it. I promised mom I'd look after the place and the water is too good to enjoy it by myself."  
"That's exactly why we're best friends."  
"Because I drag you along every time I have this place all to myself?"

Bella snorted.

"Nah, because you know just what I need to unwind. I thought that flight would never end!"

Jenna groaned. The twenty six year old had decided to use her love of traveling to make ends meet and had applied for a position with Delta airlines, and put her history degree in a drawer to gather dust.

"Admit it Jen, you love flights, even though you hate the fliers."

Bella rubbed her friend, shrieking when the strawberry blonde dunked her and dove for the shore being chased by Jenna.

"This is the life!"

Jenna struck a pose as the two emerged from the water and made their way to their towels to collapse and lather the sunscreen. Neither handled the sun very well but neither cared.

"Where are they now?"  
"Seattle. Phil's team is taking on the Seattle Whatevers and, you know mom! She just loves cheering him on!"

Bella rolled her eyes before hiding them behind a pair of sunglasses. Unlike her mother, father and stepfather, she didn't care much for sports but she never had a problem to keep an eye on their house. Unlike Jenna, Bella had used her degree in English lit to teach in a private high school until one-too-many campus rapes had forced it to shut down the year before. She had been working freelance as an editor since and was always ready to take a break from the computer screen.

The two friends lounging under the hot Florida sun had met when sharing a dorm at the same university in Phoenix. Jenna was a free spirit that reminded Bella of her mother while Bella's more serious nature allowed Jenna to not miss her strict sister too much. They hit it off like a house on fire. Jenna guided the shy and introverted Bella out of her self-imposed mental exile and helped her mend her broken spirit. In return, Bella showed Jenna that rules and reasons were not there just to be broken, but to be listened, if not obeyed, and helped her ground.

Neither moved until a small fawn and white dog ran through the open balcony doors of the beach house, tail wagging happily and a bright yellow tennis ball held between the teeth and jumped on a dozing Jenna and dropped the ball right between her breasts with a happy bark.

Needless to say Jenna shot up with a yelp.

"Jesus Barkley! Why didn't they take him with them?"

Jenna glared at the dog that was still wiggling his tail excited taking the fall from stomach to sand in stride. Bella snorted and made no move to get up.

"Because he hates small places. And planes. Most people too. He'd bark the whole place awake all day and night till he was let out again."  
"I hate you."

Jenna told the dog and threw the ball away as far as she could, and the small dog took after it as a bullet barking happily.

"Awe, he loves you too."

Bella joked and laughed when Jenna growled under her breath at her.

"Come on, I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat."

Bella's stomach growled in agreement and the two made their way inside the house and to their rooms and the adjoined bathrooms.

"Want me to ring Mason and go for burgers?"

Jenna yelled from her bathroom. Bella rolled her eyes at the not subtle hint and yelled back.

"No!"  
"Why don't you want him? He's a great guy!"  
"He's a werewolf!"  
"So? You like Barkley!"  
"So not the same thing Jen. You like him so much, you do him!"  
"Already did and lo-!"

Bella shook her head amused and stepped back under the water to rinse the shampoo off cutting her friend's words.

During a drunken-on-midnight-margaritas night at the college after an improptu party, the two had spilled their secrets. Jenna told Bella how her male bestie accidentally killed someone and turned into a wolf every full moon since and Bella told her how she got the vampire bite mark scar inside her wrist. Jenna took it in stride and shared how her town had a rich vampire history even thought she never believed it. Bella had laughed and said she wouldn't believe it either had she not dated a vampire and paid the price for it. Now Jenna kept trying to fix her best female and human friend to her best guy and non-human friend. Funny how in the meantime, she never had a problem casually dating and sleeping with him herself...

A scream had Bella nearly jump out of her skin the moment she stepped out of the shower and reaching for a towel.

"Jen!?"

Receiving no response, she tightened the towel around her, shoved her feet in their flip flops and went in search for the screaming Jenna. Barkley's barking form close on her heels.

"Jen?"

She stopped at the threshold of the spare room. Jenna was on her knees in the middle of the room, buck naked, blue eyes wide and glassy, wet hair plastered down on her head and dripping water. Next to her a silver cell phone. Quickly Bella grabbed Jenna's fluffy yellow bathrobe and wrapped her friend in it.

"Barkley shut UP!"

She shushed the dog and knelt next to Jenna.

"Honey, what is it? What happened?"

"Miranda.. and Grayson... they're gone?"

Jenna choked out before passing out in her friend's arms.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

When Jenna woke up she was startled to see that the sun hadn't gone down yet. She felt as if it had been hours when it had been mere minutes. She was still cradled in Bella's arms who was rocking side to side slowly and for a minute she wondered what had happened. Then it came crushing back to her. 

Her choosing to go see Bella instead of going to her sister's to spend her vacation there.  
Them fooling around at the beach having fun..  
Talking about an early dinner and then...  
 **THE** phone call. Liz Forbes calling her to tell her about the ... The accident.

Feeling bile rising in her throat Jenna pushed Bella away and crawled to the bathroom to puke. She felt hands pull her wet hair back and then help her cup her hands and clear her mouth with water. Bella's voice came filtered as if she was far away.

"Jen sweetie, I want you to get up and get dressed. Can you do that?"

Jenna nodded numbed. She felt cold and shivery. She took Bella's hands and stood and Bella's hands waited for her to steady herself before letting go and just like that the rose colored towel clad Bella left the room. As if automated Jenna pulled a pair of jeans and a tank top and put it on, only remembering underwear at the last minute. She blinked at Bella who was suddenly there again and who picked the phone from the floor before Barkley could claim it as his new chew toy.

Then Jenna closed her eyes again.

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

Bella sighed biting back a shiver of her own. Jenna's zombie state hit a little too close to home and the brunette refused to stand still and let it catch up. Instead she went to Jenna's bag, removed the dog that was exploring it and made sure everything was still inside before zipping it up. Then she took Jenna's brush from the table and set out to brush her friend's hair out and then braid it, like she had done with her own. Once that was done, she returned to her own room, packed and carried both their bags to the garage and her car where Jenna's work issued rolling suitcase was forgotten.

"Feel like going on a road trip?"

She asked the dog following her like a duckling, who replied with a series of barks and twirled around.

"I'll take that as a yes. Come on fella"

She said with a sad smile and made a trip to the kitchen to get his food and collapsible bowls before putting his road duds on him. Then, and only then, did she reach for the wall mounted phone to place a call to her mother.

"Give her my love and sympathies baby. If the boys win, they'll stick around for a bit more but I'll be home as soon as possible for you two. Oh and take the emergency credit card, it's all on us, you hear? I love you both."

Renee was crying when the call ended and the zombie state was nearing. Bella had to blink a few times to avoid crying herself. Renee, Bella's mother, had liked Jenna as soon as she set eyes on her. Bella often joked that Renee had picked the wrong baby at the nursery because she and Jenna were that much alike!

"Now the hard part."

Bella said aloud and returned to Jenna's room. Her friend had opened her eyes but didn't look any more alert than before. She didn't put up any fight when Bella took her hand to guide her to the kitchen and opened her mouth, chewed and swallowed when instructed until the buttered toast was finished. She didn't say a word when Bella locked the house, set the alarm and led her and Barkley to the garage. She looked out of the window, eyes glassy unseeing and with tears falling down her cheeks as Bella drove. Only When Bella gently took her hand in hers and they drove past the city limits, she turned to look at her.

"Where..?"

Her voice was hoarse. Bella pulled to the side of the road and reached for a bottle of water she had stashed in the back next to the dog's crate and urged her to drink.

"Mystic Falls. A cop lady called and said she needed you to go there and officially identify the bodies so the kids won't have to. And to tell the kids too."

Jenna let out a strangled sound that had Barkley cower back at the other end of his crate. Bella's hold on Jenna's hand tightened as she continued.

"So we're moving our vacation from Jacksonville there."

Jenna blinked at the tone of finality in her friend's voice and kept staring at her when she put the car back on the road and started driving.

"What about your mom and the house and the motormouth dog?"  
"I called mom, you have her condolences by the way, and she said it's just fine to close the house down, take the dog with us and they'll be back soon. She also gave me free use of her credit card and wished us a safe trip""Don't you mean Phil's credit card?"

Jenna's tone was dry. Bella snorted, glad she could pull Jenna away from her morbid thoughts even for a little while

"Yeah yeah. I told him when they married, he's mom's keeper now."

She turned the truth in a joke and turned the GPS on. Despite their long friendship, Jenna had never invited Bella to her hometown which, according to the pebble-chewing GPS dude was just over three hours away from her mother's home in Florida.

The trip west went by fairly fast thanks to the wide open and empty highway and Jenna spent it staring out of the window at the passing scenery. Not that any was visible since dusk had fallen just as they left Jacksonville. In his crate, Barkley was silent, seemingly being affected by the general gloomy mood. When Bella yawned and took the final turn that would take them away from the highway and to Mystic Falls, Jenna seemed to return to the world. Just in time for Bella to turn off Pebble-Man too.

"Hey"

Jenna's voice was soft. Bella gave her a smile

"Hey. How are you feeling?"  
"Crap"

"Think you can give me directions from now on? If I have to listen to Pebble-Man's voice anymore I might just hunt him down and kill him"

Jenna's light brown brows furred together

"Pebble who?"

Bella pointed at the GPS mounted on the dash of her car and imitated the voice of someone who had stuffed his mouth with pebbles and trying to speak around them.

"Yikes"  
"Yep"

Jenna took another sip of the now warm bottle of water and sat up a little straighter to look around.

"Keep going straight and you'll reach the falls. Go around them and you'll find a bridge. Take it"  
"I was wondering about the name"

Jenna's lips quirked a little

"Ask the mayor's wife about it and Carol will talk your ear to the ground about the town."

Crossing the bridge had them both shivering. It was long, scarily empty and dark except for a place where a police issued gas lamp was placed and for the first time since she left her father's hometown for college, Bella felt eyes on her.

She didn't like it one bit.

* * *

 **A/N** : Yeah... Mystic Falls is moving. Goodbye Virginia, hello Florida. It's still shrouded in trees and feeling isolated from the rest of the world, so don't worry about any stray vampires, they won't go kaboom as soon as they move to town. Enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

What little of the town Bella saw was fast asleep as Bella slowed down following Jenna's instructions to go through it and get to the police station. The station itself was a long, single story building with a couple cruisers parked out front. Remembering her father's cautionary words on how to part at a police station, once she had parked in a regular spot and then was told it was reserved for cruisers and nearly got her car towed away, so now she pulled in a random spot.

"Come in with me?"

Jenna's voice was small again and she was clutching Barkley in her arms as if she was a child with a favorite toy. Bella nodded and they got out of the car. Seeing that Jenna wasn't inclined to go inside, Bella took a deep breath and started walking, Jenna following behind guided by their clasped hands.

Behind a desk in the entrance hall sat a rather plump woman with her eyes closed and chin sitting on her hands, fast asleep. Seeing the light coming from the only closed space in the back the two decided to not wake the receptionist but walked towards the light instead. Seeing Jenna freeze again Bella raised a hand to knock at the frame of the open door but Barkley chose that moment to say his piece and began barking instead.

"Quiet"

Bella scolded the dog only to receive a wet tongue on the nose. She sighed resigned and then the door threshold was filled by a woman with short blond hair, blue eyes and a cop uniform. Her eyes were wet and she put her hand on Jenna's arm as soon as she saw them.

Bella tuned the pleasantries and condolences out and bit her lip to not cry out in pain as Jenna's grip tightened on her hand. She tuned back in when cop lady started talking about identification of the bodies.

"You mean there's a chance it's not Gray and Miranda?"

Jenna was suddenly hopeful and Bella hated the cop for bringing her hopes up just to dash them.

"It's part of the process, I'm afraid. We do know it was them and Miranda's, I'm sorry"  
"I know Liz. I just thought... for a moment that..."  
"It's okay honey."

Bella said softly squeezing her friend's hand. Jenna closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let it out.

"Let's just get it over with. Do Jeremy and Elena know?"

The cop lady, sheriff, Bella thought, the rank insignia was the same as her father's, shook her head.

"Elena is with Bonnie and Caroline at my ex in-law's lake house for the weekend. My ex is bringing them back tomorrow, how about wait till then to tell them?"

Jenna nodded and licked her lips, taking a deep breath and standing just a little straighter. She sat down in one of the chairs in front of Liz's desk, her fingers reached to straighten the placket with the name Sheriff Forbes, and watched as the older woman opened a file and handed her two photographs, the dog still firmly held in her arms. Bella, standing just behind Jenna looked at the photographs too. On the bright side the people in them looked as if they were sleeping. On the less bright side, in the full body shots, there was something that made Bella reach out for them. Jenna handed them and confirmed for Liz that it was her sister and brother in law before mumbling that she felt sick and making a run for the car, Barkley barking loudly at being jostled at the sudden move.

Bella watched them leave before turning to Liz.

"Excuse me sheriff but what are those shadows on the bodies?"

The sherrif's blue eyes widened with more than a bit of panic in them and then she blinked.

"Are you a relative Miss?"

Bella shook her head.

"Jenna is my best friend, sheriff. I'd hate for her to deal with this thinking it was nothing more than a terrible accident if it was."

Bella thought that she should have been nicer to the woman but she was tired and the shadows reminded her all too much of a series of deaths back in her father's hometown when she was living with him back in high school.

"You're right. It wasn't entirely an accident. Those shadows are slashes from an animal attack. I think they went off the road because of it and... And drowned."

A sad half smile graced Bella's lips.

"An animal attack... That's what my father said when he had to cover up deaths caused by vampires. It seems like things aren't entirely different on this end of the US."

She kept her voice light and when Liz's blue eyes met her own dark ones, she nodded lightly conveying that she'd keep the secret.

"Good night sheriff"

Sheriff Forbes nodded her own goodnight and Bella walked out of the police station. Jenna was kneeling next to the car, wiping her lips, her eyes wet.

"Hey"  
"Can we go home now?"  
"Jen, I love you, but I'm not driving 3 hours back to Jacksonville."

The two friends chuckled and Jenna, impulsively, hugged her.

"Thank you, I don't know what I'd do without you Bell. Come on. Let's go to Miranda's place and get some sleep. We'll tackle tomorrow when it comes"

Jenna sniffled.

"It's already here. It'll be dawn in a couple of hours"  
"Shhh"

It wasn't until the creamy blue car got out of the ring road and to the main street that Bella realized the car missed an occupant.

"Hey, what did you do with my mother's dog?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jenna was right. Morning did come too soon. Jenna had collapsed in the spare room's bed the moment they arrived. Bella, ever the caretaker, had removed the beer bottles off the sleeping teenage boys in the living room grasps, before collapsing in the daybed of the same spare room as Jenna.

Morning was signaled by a silver SUV depositing a teenage girl with long straight hair at the front door. Morning saw the teenage hangover boys stumble out of the house before any parents could arrive.

Jenna was stronger in the morning. She kept her shoulders impossibly pulled back, her back impossibly straight, and her head held high. Her eyes were still red and a lot of makeup was needed to make her look even remotely alive. She kept twisting her moonstone pendant every time she couldn't wrap her fingers around her oversized mug of coffee.

Bella kept an eye on her friend, who was chugging coffee as if it was going out of fashion, and rolled her eyes when the hangover teenage boy made a lewd comment at her being Jenna's *special friend* who would be staying with them, along with Jenna, for a while.

"Cute, Jer. Not funny, but cute. I'm Elena."

The teenage girl shook hands with Bella who was going through the mostly empty kitchen cupboards.

"Nice to meet you Elena. Have you had breakfast yet? I was about to scavenge through the fridge and make... something."

Elena had eaten already but Jeremy hadn't and Jenna definitely needed some time and more coffee before she could break the news so Bella made hangover sandwiches for everyone while Jenna made another pot of coffee.

As the egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches were eaten, conversation flew from Jenna's job, to why she had kept Bella a secret and to school beginning next week. If the teens had any idea what was coming, neither let on, though neither asked about their parents either. To Bella's surprise neither teen was glued to their phone, though Jeremy did admit he hadn't seen his in the few hours the impromptu party was on. Instead Jeremy ate with gusto while Elena regaled her aunt with stories about her weekend away with her friends and how unfair her parents were for not letting her go away with her boyfriend Matt.

Bella hid her amused shake of the head by picking up the table to quickly washing the dishes and studiously avoiding Jenna's eyes who agreed with Elena. Jenna took a deep breath tuning Elena's teenage rant against her parents out and waited for the girl to stop to get take a breath and interrupted her.

"Guys, there's something I have to tell you. I'm not here just because I missed you and I'm on vacation."

She exchanged a look with Bella who was standing against the sink suddenly frozen.

"There was accident last night"

Elena's eyes widened as she got it.

"No, no!"

"But mom and dad were out last night."

Jeremy didn't get it. He got it after all three women in the room turned to stare at him.

"Oh...OH!"

Jenna jumped from her seat and knelt between the teens still seating in their chairs, and began explaining the events of the last 12 hours. Bella knowing what came next was personal, leashed the dog that was sleeping on a plush armchair in the living room, grabbed her purse and left the house just as the sobs became louder.

Leaning against the closed front door, she sighed and then looked look at the dog who didn't look particularly pleased to be awake.

"Come on Sleepy. Let's go for a walk."

 _ **\- - - Memories and a Past and a Future - - -**_

Bella was walking slowly letting the small fawn and white dog run around and play and sniff the bushes, stretching his leash to its maximum length. She wasn't entirely sure where she was. She had begun walking randomly and at some point she either had slipped at the woods that surrounded the small town, or had found herself in a large park. Whichever was right she didn't really mind. The dog was excited, as nearly as excited as he had been at the beach the previous afternoon and kept sticking as much of his slim frame as he could, in holes in the various shrubbery, barking and scaring the wild life. He was definitely going to need a bath later.

Idly she wondered how long they'd stay here and how rude it'd be if she were to mention that the kitchen cupboards and fridge were empty and the house could use a good cleaning. Pretty rude probably. Then her thoughts turned to the accident. The sheriff had all but admitted in the end that it wasn't exactly an accident and that a vampire -though to be fair, Bella had uttered the word first- was to blame. Walking slowly, the brunette toyed with the idea of giving her father a call. Charles -Charlie, to his friends- Swan was a police chief in a tiny dot on the map, not much bigger or smaller, than Mystic Falls on the other end of the country. A small town that had its unfair share of supernatural beings and a number of vampire attacks had been masked until the local vampire family moved away. Now a clan of wolf shape shifters protected the area.

"Maybe dad could look at the file and give an opinion? If it wasn't natural, then someone should get punished but, do I tell that to Jenna? Is knowing good or will she and the kids be better off if they don't know Barkley?"

Bella asked the dog who gave her a 'are you talking to me?' look before going back to jumping in the air and trying to swipe at a colorful bird sitting on a tree branch. The bird regarded the dog as well probably thinking ' _you are amusing little furball_ '.

"Just checking wouldn't hurt, would it? If the sheriff is wrong then I keep mum? But if there is a hungry, sparkly, more than possibly brooding, vampire in the area, then... Oh screw it!"

Convincing herself that knowing is better, she fumbled through the outside mini pockets of her white purse and Bella produced her cell phone. Biting her lip, and remembering her father did not understand the idea behind texts at all, she dialed his home number. It was Saturday, her father was an avid fisherman and his cell phone, stupidly, had no signal at the sea.

"Hey dad, were you sick when you recorded this message? You sound like Yogi the bear!... Anyway, I'm alive, mom's alive, even Phil is good, so do try to lower your heartbeat!... I don't want to lose you dad!... But I do need a favor. Jenna's sister and brother in law were in a car accident last night. They, erm, didn't make it... Listen dad, I may have glanced at the coroner's report when the local sheriff was telling Jenna and the photos had a bit of shadowing under the sheet and I may have tossed the words "using animal attack as cover for vampire attacks" prior to the car going off the road and the sheriff went as white and you did when you found my birth control pills... So, I was wondering... Is there anything you can find in the public files or whatevers and see if there is something on the loose?... Anyway, give me a call on my cell phone when you can and I'll tell you more. Love you."

Ending the call, Bella let her breath out. There. Now it wasn't up to her anymore. At least until Charlie called her back anyway. She used both hands to slip the phone back in her purse and froze realizing she no longer held Barkley's leash. Barkley himself was nowhere in sight though the baby blue leash handle was barely visible in a bush.

"Barkley!"

On hands and knees, Bella dislodged the leash and gave it a gentle tug. In response she heard a yelp and Sir Barks-a-lot earning his nickname.

"Hey hey Barky, where are you?"

Crawling on all fours she raised a couple low branches and slipped under. The grass on the other side was well maintained and flowery. The little loud doggie was standing on the chest of someone barking his little head off.

"Barkley!"

Bella exclaimed and stumbled to her feet to go to the dog as the leash wound up and give it a good yank dislodging man and dog. Barkley fell to his side, stood, gave a good shake and went right back in the guy's face, never stopping barking.

"I'm so sorry."

Bella said loudly, above the noise of the dog. The guy seemed to be around Elena's age and was staring at her like she was a ghost.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The guy was still gaping, mouth opening and closing like a fish.

"How..."

Bella pointed over her shoulder where she and Barkley had gone through

"If that is a fence, there is a gap at the hedge. This loud little guy ran away from me and came through. I followed him in."

The guy nodded. He didn't seem to be much older than Elena, who was seventeen according to Jenna. Light brown hair, green-ish eyes, look like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Did Barkley hurt you?"

The guy shook his head.

"Can you speak?"

She asked speaking slowly. In response Green eyes scowled.

"I'm fine. This... mop... may be loud but he's harmless."

He extended a hand to pet the dog, only to have it bitten. Bella hid her smirk.

"I wouldn't pet him until he calms down, if I were you."

She said lightly and gave the dog another firm tug at the leash succeeding in drawing Barkley away from the guy.

"Well, sorry to barge in like this. If you can point me back to civilization, I'll be out of your hair and Barkley here will be coming with me."

The guy seemed to find his tongue after a swallowing and licking his lips. He stood slowly and extended a hand

"Stefan"

"Bella"

She shook his hand and he pointed to their side

"Civilization."

Bella nodded her thanks, letting go of the guy's slightly cold hand.

"See you around."  
"I'll hear you coming."  
"Only if I have the dog with me."

Laughing to herself, Bella kept a tight hold on the leash and began walking in the directed way. Soon a stone path crossed her way and following it, she found a large mansion and then a gate.

"House that backs into the woods, Barkley. Always hated those."

She made a mental note to look into who lived there. The area was wooded but her vampire related experience knew better.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

Stefan for his part was still staring the direction to which Bella left. If his heart was beating, it'd be slow as death despite being startled by the little four legged monster.

"I'll be damned. First Katherine and now her companion. And that ... thing."

Here he was, minding his own business and ridding the woods of small furry animals for lunch, and out of the blue comes another furry animal. Without paying attention, Stefan had tried to sink his teeth into that one as well but it fought back and began yowling even louder than before, got on his chest and nearly bit his head off. And then, she strutted out the woods as well. Isabella Pierce.

First time he had seen her, it was when she stepped out of a carriage right after Katherine in 1864. She was introduced as her companion, and no one ever questioned them having the same last name even though they didn't look all that alike. He had fallen head over heels for Katherine, while Isabella became closer with his father. It seemed the young woman had a flair for business and would often accompany Giussepe Salvatore in his trips but never spoke up when Stefan was there as well.

It was a happy time, Stefan reflected as he began walking towards the house. His father was attentive despite being strict, and had allowed him to work towards his studies as he wanted, rather than pushing him to join the war, like his older brother, Damon. Speaking of Damon, it was his return that ruined everything.

His far more wordly brother used his good looks and bad boy image and ruined his courting of Katherine. His father had reminded Damon that his reprieve of the war wouldn't last forever and he was to return to the front. Katherine had began flirting and dating both with the talent of a master juggler while Isabella had refused to get involved. In retrospect, she was smart to do that, although at the time Stefan had hated her for it. How could she not see that he was the smart choice for her friend? He was reliable, would inherit the family business and wouldn't cheat.

He was a moron.

When the truth came out, along with Katherine's vampirism, he and Damon had worked together to save Katherine from the eternal slumber fate the town council had planned for the captured vampires.

Neither Salvatore son had known about it, but there had been a massive operation by the town council, which served as protectors of the small town against supernatural threats, to catch all of them. At the time, no one knew that vampires could walk during the day, if they had a magical stone that allowed them to. However Giussepe Salvatore had began to see clearly through Katherine's act.

He had suspected her for a vampire when his formerly amicable, if not overly loving, siblings began fighting like dogs in heat over her. Each brother becoming nothing more than a caricature of their former selves. It didn't help that the Pierces had arrived the day after his wife's horse had been spooked by something and had tossed her off its back resulting in her death. Giussepe had watched and had seen the pattern in Katherine's revolving bedroom door and spiked Stefan's drink with a local herb that was poisonous to vampires. When Katherine got sick immediately after she sank her teeth in Stefan's neck, he had acted. Stefan had asked help from Damon, whose neck was bearing similar bite marks and the two did their best to save the woman they loved.

They failed. Katherine had been entombed alive in a mass grave along with the rest, and his father had lost both sons, by his own hand. The old man had such a deep hatred for vampires that the thought of his sons being sympathizers was too much to consider.

Isabella had been smarter and had been working along with Giuseppe to catch the vampires without revealing her own status as one. While Katherine kept the sons occupied, Isabella had found out how the council worked and had protected small clusters of vampires that were truly not hurting anyone, directing the full sweep in the direction of the crazed ones that would attack and kill people left and right. In the crazy of *that* night she had disappeared and was never heard of again.

Until now.


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey, the new year is here! I wish you all a very happy, pleasurable year to be the one for the memories! 3  
**

* * *

Chapter 6 **  
**

Jenna was on her third glass of iced coffee when her exhausted best friend walked through the plaza and dropped on the empty chair across from her with a sigh. The dog had been dropped in the third chair and immediately fell asleep.

"How much did you two walk?"  
"Entirely too much"

Bella groaned. When the blond teenage boy came to get her order she didn't even open her eyes as she replied.

"Anything as long as it's icy cold and comes in an IV form"  
"She'll have coffee and a croissant, Matt. For that matter bring me one too?"

Jenna said to the teen's laughter

"Coffee or croissant?"  
"Both"

Matt's laughter got harder. Bella poked her tongue out at her friend and stretched leaning her head at the back of her chair.

"You're out of the house. How did it go?"

Jenna sighed.

"How do you think it went?"

She rubbed her eyes

"Jeremy locked himself in his room, while Elena claimed the couch and the tissues. I love them both but I had to get out or we'd all be crying and I have a double funeral to set up unfortunately."

Opening her eyes Bella saw the tell tale redness in Jenna's. She reached past her friend's coffee and squeezed her hand

"Do you need me to do anything?"  
"Come with me to the funeral parlor? Miranda and Gray left directions and I really want to get it over with and then get wasted"

Bella shuddered. She hated funeral parlors. Then she nodded with enough of a whine in her tone to tease a smile out of her friend

"Let me get caffeinated first?"

Jenna's smile was wide and honest. Their coffees and food arrived (along with a metallic bowl filled with water for Barkley) and they ate with gusto. Then Bella picked up the still dog that had woken up long enough to drink half the bowl and then went back to his favorite activity, sleep, and, gratefully, slid into the passenger seat of the Gilbert family suv.

"I wasn't sure where you keep your car keys and Grey never minded lending me their car."  
"You liked him?"  
"Yeah, he was a bore but exciting enough to rouse Miranda out of her everyday 'founder family bride' stuff. She loved that stuff"

She sniffled. Bella frowned

"Founder family bride?"

The sniffle turned into a snort

"Gray's ancestors come from the number of the original families that founded Mystic Falls. All of them now have some important civil business. Grey was the town doctor, Liz married into the Forbes family and was guided to be sheriff when her father in law passed, the Fells are in the media, a Lockwood is the mayor and lawyer.."  
"Wait, as in 'woof woof' Mason Lockwood?"

Jenna laughed

"Only thing Mason holds a court over are the waves, but yeah, those Lockwoods. His brother Richard and sister in law hold the ruling chair in all such committees. "

Then she frowned

"I'm forgetting someone... The Salvatore's! I have no idea what they do, however"  
"Sounds to me, the founders are in charge of everything important around here"  
"They are"

Bella's mouth quirked when Jenna pulled in front of the funeral house. A modest two story building.

"Here goes..."

 _\- - - **Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

The next day dawned rainy and cold. It was the picture perfect funeral day, Bella mused internally. Jenna had been awake since the previous night getting wasted and covering it up with makeup. Elena had been locked in her room with two more teenage girls and a guy being their gopher. Jeremy was in his room and if the eye watering stench coming from it was any indication, he spent the night getting higher than a kite.

"This is not going to be a good day"

She whispered to herself and spiked all coffees with enough scotch to make sure none of the remaining Gilbert-Sommers would remember anything.

"Please tell me it's spiked"

Jenna groaned sitting on the breakfast table.

"Any spikier and it'd need crutches to walk"  
"I love you"

Bella snorted.

"I love you too. Now drink your coffee. You need to appear strong enough for them."

She pointed at the ceiling. Jenna groaned and added some more alcohol in her mug.

"Today. is. going. to. suck."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

And it did. The day was slow, torturous and full of crying people. Most genuine, some dry eyed. Jeremy had been whisked away by a bunch of guys and to the back yard where the smoke of their joints could easily be used to send signals. Elena had plastered a frozen smile on her face and was being talked by everyone until she escaped to a pair of girls and the blond waiter from the Grill at the hollow under the stairs. Jenna had locked herself in the den with a guy that gave Bella major creeps. Bella was stalking the living room and the dining room, refilling drinks and acting as a buffer for her friend. It helped that the constant walking made her resemble a waitress and kept her out of the various gossipy mourners.

A small group of such mourners were huddled together. The sheriff Bella had met earlier was among them and so was a guy that had a fairly wolfish face, like Mason. Bella rubbed her bottom lip and grabbed the two bottles of wine from the dining table. Then she walked towards the group and served wine to people that stood near them keeping an ear out.

"More wine?"

Sheriff Liz Forbes was upset as if this was a personal hit at her

"I don't know Richard! We have nothing physical to say anyone was even there!"

"Excluding that one of our own was turned into shish kebab!"

'Richard' all but sneered, looking like a dog more than ever. Bella rolled her eyes.

"The car accident ruse will last for a while, especially with fall rains coming in soon."

"It has to; Miranda and Grayson were victims #3 and #4. If this keeps up no one will use the bridge."

"And that will be so bad for the fall festival Mayor."

An elderly guy said sardonically. Bella suppressed a snicker of her own. Trust a politician to downplay a bunch of vampire attacks just to not lose tourists.

"Screw you!"

Jenna hissed and stormed in the room. The creeper that followed her in mouthed something at her that made Jenna's lips pull back and Bella was glad Mason was there to wrap an arm around her friend's waist and hold her back. When the creep slipped and face planted on the floor, no one but Jenna saw Mason's foot struck out.

"Give me a drink."

The creep demanded at Bella after picking himself off the floor.

"Red or white?"

Bella sneered using Emmett's method. While the Cullens had no fangs, something Hollywood thought vampires should have but they really didn't, Emmett tended to sneer, making words come out as if spoken around fangs. The creep jumped and then glared at her oh-so-innocent smile before staring down at her cleavage openly.

"White, like you!"

He leered and then grabbed the bottle from her hand. Before he could say anything else, Richard grabbed him by the arm and added him to the circle mouthing an apology to Bella before she could introduce her knee to the Creep's groin. Bella then walked to Jenna and offered her the bottle of the red wine

"You look like you need some."

"John needs some."

Mason said with a waggle of his brows. Jenna snorted and Bella smiled.

"God, yes, please. Come on let's go in the kitchen. If I stay around him longer, I'll hit him."

"Who's the creep?"

Bella asked once in the secluded room. Jenna took the glass of wine from mason who sat between them after filling glasses for all three.

"Gray's brother. He refuses to do his part in taking the kids in."

Jenna's voice was shaking. Mason pointed a finger upwards, indicating the ceiling

"Those kids? Jen, they're teenagers. Not really easy to just play mom and dad to."

Bella nodded

"Not to mention that that guy creeps *me* out. I don't want to be under the same roof as he is and I'm not a teenager!"

Jenna snorted at the truth in her friends' words.

"Bastard washes his hands off the kids but wants to keep the building Grayson's practice is in and is generously willing to let the kids stay here without rent."

Bella's mouth fell open

"I beg your pardon?"

"Yep. I remember the will because it nearly freaked me out they were willing to discuss the possibility of their death. It left everything to the kids, equal split with John and I as their guardians till they came of age."

"For the record, when will that be?"

Bella asked taking a sip of her wine, noting Mason having gone to stand next to the open kitchen door.

"Jeremy is fifteen, Elena seventeen. I suppose a full three years unless Elena feels confident to take him in next year"

Jenna replied with a shrug and smeared some fish paste on a cracker to eat. The glass of wine she had downed had calmed her down, Bella was pleased to notice. Popping a cracker in her mouth and trying not to grimace at the artificial taste of the paste, Bella asked what she was certain Jenna was thinking

"You want to move them in with us?"

Jenna snorted

"I love our apartment but it is a two bedroom one. It won't fit all four of us and... They just lost their parents. I don't want to uproot them from their lives and friends too."

She said with a sign. Bella smiled, a small sad smile

"You want to move here to be with them, don't you?"

Jenna nodded

"Then do so hon."

"But what will you do?"

"I'll find a new roommate"

Bella said with a too-casual-to-be-believable shrug. Jenna gave her a smile that was designed to melt any defenses.

"Oooor you could, you know, move here with me"

Bella blinked

"No"

"Please? It'll be fun"

"Raising two teenagers? Not my kind of fun."

"Not mine either but I'll do it."

"You're their aunt. It's your job to do it."

"And you're my bestie"

"So?"

"It's your job to suffer alongside me."

"I don't think so."

"Pwease? Pwetty pwease with chewwies on top?"

Jenna had been leaning over the table while begging and Bella had been leaning away while refusing and trying not to laugh at her friend's ridiculous face and they both fell off, Jenna's face right between Bella's breasts. The crash got Mason's attention

"Do you need me to step out?"

He asked laughing. Both women rolled their eyes at him in perfect unison

"Mason help me! She won't move here with me."

"Mason help ME! She won't take no for an answer."

Mason shook his head dramatically and grabbing both women by the elbows, he easily pulled them both upright. Then he turned to Bella

"Stay in Jacksonville. With her out of the way, you'll have me all to yourself."

He leered with his brows waggling up and down. Bella considered it and turned to Jenna

"So, when are we moving?"


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'll need my drinking buddy so I won't kill them both if and when they piss me off."

Mason snorted and popped a cracker in his mouth ignoring the fish paste with a "wolves no like fishes" look.

"I'm the fun aunt. I don't do discipline."  
"Well I'm not doing it either, so get ready for it."

Bella semi-joked and looked for something more substantial to eat.

"Jen, I don't want to rush you but there aren't enough rooms here either, unless you want to take your sister's room or for us to keep sharing one."

Jenna shrugged and pointed at the junk food cupboard.

"There are always chips there. And no worries, you can take the apartment over Gray's practice."

Bella picked a lays bag with a generic oregano flavor to empty in a bowl and grabbed a couple

"Thanks, you just said John wants it?"  
"Fuck him."

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

Meanwhile back in the living room, the entire town council was staring at the kitchen door which was once again blocked by Mason who was shamelessly listening in their conversation thanks to his enhanced werewolf senses.

"She blatantly said she knows vampires?"

Mayor Richard Lockwood said locking glances with his younger, carefree brother, who was now glaring at him.

"She saw the shadows of the slashes on the bodies. I covered it up with the usual animal attacks excuse. She said her father used the same excuse to cover vampire attacks and made a quip about things being the same here. She never gave me her name and I can't find any recent animal attacks on the online police files."

Sheriff Liz Forbes said and drank from her glass.

"She certainly sneered like those TV vamps at me just now"

John Gilbert complained.

"With what you told her and how you told her, you're lucky she didn't pop you in the mouth, son."

Zach Salvatore said with a knowing grin. He was the same age as the rest but had inherited the constant use of "son" and "girl" uttered by his late father to annoy people that annoyed him. Liz snorted under her breath. John Gilbert was a bully and, in their school years, had vowed to make her life hell for not being one of the founding families. It wasn't until Bill, her ex-husband, stepped in and began dating her that John stopped and that was because when the sheriff's kid wanted something, the doctor's kid stopped pursuing it.

"She's a visitor; she'd bound to leave soon. If she doesn't, just keep an eye on her Liz."

Carol Lockwood said simply. The mayor's wife held no formal authority on the town but she liked to think she did. Behind her, the local newscaster and last founding member Logan Fell rolled his eyes promptly.

"Want me to dig in her Liz? A newcomer who knows about vamps and she's firmly set in the family of one of our own? It's worth looking into."

"Keep it in your pants lover boy. She's definitely a dyke for not wanting me."

John said with an air of disdain. Both Carol and Liz pursed their lips and both considered hitting him but it was Zach's voice, low, dangerous and full of authority that spoke

"Be quiet now, son."

John looked at the others for support but no one would look at him and from his spot at the kitchen door Mason gave a low growl. John shut up.

At the growl both Bella and Jenna looked at Mason.

"Everything okay?"  
"John is being his usual charming self."

Mason said, his lips pulled back over his teeth. Jenna jumped from her chair to grab his hand and pull him away from the door, unknowingly leaving Bella to be seen. Zach Salvatore kept her in his sights, remembering what his 'nephew' had told him about her.

"Ignore him. He'll sober up and most probably leave tomorrow. Come on, have a drink."  
"Do you need to run it off? If so, I have a small and cuddly companion for you."

Bella asked with a smile. Mason looked from one grinning redhead to the other.

"I'm not taking that snot out and you can't make me."  
"Are you sure? Chicks dig guys with dogs."

Jenna said with a smile. Bella copied the smile as she nodded.

"You don't even like dogs!"  
"My mother is out of town and I'm stuck with it, till they return."  
"Sucks for you two. I'm still not doing it."  
"Will you do it for a Scooby snack?"

Jenna asked trying not to laugh. Bella grabbed the treat bag from a cupboard and took out a biscuit.

"I'm not Shaggy!"

Mason exclaimed

"I'd do it but the busybodies out there would start talking the moment I left."  
"I'd do it but my feet are killing me. Damn heels."

Mason sighed. He was going to walk the damn dog.

"Fine... But if he starts barking like crazy again for no reason, I'm blaming you two."

Jenna smiled brilliantly and kissed him on the cheek before standing, squaring her shoulders and going out to face the townies.

"How much of this do you think she'll remember tomorrow?"

Mason asked quietly. Bella shrugged

"With the amount of time she's spent drinking these past couple days? Not much or I'll have to find the local AA meetings to sign her up. Hold on, I'll find Barkley for you. Last I saw him he was sleeping on the bed in the spare room."

Bella plastered a smile on her lips as she too stepped in the living room and headed upstairs. Mason did the same and went to bid goodnight to his brother.

"Leaving so soon little brother?"  
"I got roped into walking the dog."  
"The Gilberts don't have a dog."

Liz frowned.

"It's visiting, Liz."

Mason said with a smile that did more to unnerve than it did to calm. Liz remembered the furball in Jenna's arms when the two women showed up.

"Oh that thing!"  
"That's the one.""There is a woman to rope you into anything? I'll definitely want to meet her. Bring her over for dinner tomorrow."

Carol said with her shark smile and Mason cringed inwardly. Like hell he'd ever force anyone to spend time with his sister in law. Though bringing Jenna over for a reminder how the two couples had clashed back in their school years might be fun.

"Actually I'll be on my way tomorrow Carol. Maybe another time."

Just then Bella appeared with the fawn and white doggie in her arms, baby blue harness on and the matching leash hanging off her hand.

"Have fun you two, and don't let him get too acquainted with the local wild life. Oh, and pick up after him."  
"I know how to walk a dog."

Mason complained much to the amusement of everyone else. Bella's eyes were twinkling as she responded

"I was talking to the dog, Mason."

Mason glowered at her but she only fluttered her lids in response. Liz hid her smile behind her wine glass while Logan muttered under his breath.

"Whipped."  
"She's a cutie! What is she?"

Carol forgot about her 'first wife' attitude and cooed at the dog

"She's a 'he' and I have no idea. My mother found him in a pet adoption event. I think the vet something about Corgi with a variety of other breeds."  
"What's he called?"

Liz asked gently running her fingers across the smooth fur while Carol petted the soft head of the dog.

"Barkley. Sir Barks-a-Lot for friends. He barks. A lot."

Barkley demonstrated his healthy lungs by choosing to bark and raise a paw to be shaken, or kissed, Mason thought, as he took hold of Barkley and made his escape in the quiet night. Mason looked down at the happy furball tugging at the leash.

"Bella was right, chicks do dig dogs. Just not my kind of chicks and not my kind of dogs."  
"woof!"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It was midmorning when Jenna cornered her nephew and niece. The teens were having a late breakfast as she was making a mental list of what she'd need to pack and how much room it'd take in the car.

"Guys, can I talk to you?"

With a mouth full of cereal Jeremy nodded and Elena didn't bother to look up as she too nodded but kept tapping away on her phone.

"You guys know your parents made a will, right? It dictates that if something happens to them it's up to me and John to take you in."

Elena groaned. Jeremy snorted.

"My sentiments exactly. I'm doing it instead. I'll be moving in with you two if that's okay."

Jenna decided not to share that John had downright refused any and all possibility that he did his share and had instead left her to deal with the raising of the siblings. This time Elena did look up from her phone with a smile.

"That's great aunt Jenna."

Jeremy nodded stuffing his mouth with another big spoonful of cereal. Absently Jenna pictured him as a pig scarfing down his food, it wouldn't be too different.

"What about your girlfriend?"

Jenna shook her head amused at his insistence. Definitely something pig-like.

"She's not my girlfriend chump. Just my best friend, who doesn't want to stay all by herself in Jacksonville and I convinced her to come stay here in Mystic Falls. She's going to live in the apartment above your dad's practice, if that's okay."  
"Sure is."  
"She cooks nice, think you can convince her to cook for us?"

Jenna laughed.

"Do you ever think with something other than your stomach Jer?"

The teenage boy was about to reply when he thought better of it and added more cereal to his bowl. His mind went to a girl he lately started liking and who began liking him back when some pot landed in his hands.

"What are you doing today?"

Jenna asked again. Jeremy shrugged muttering something about going to hit some hoops. Elena said that her best friend would come by.

"So you don't mind me being gone? I want to drive back to Jacksonville and close down the apartment there. I'll pick something for dinner on my way back."

If Jenna was perturbed that neither teen seemed to care, she didn't show it. Instead she bid them goodbye, picked the keys to Miranda's silver SUV from their spot in the bowl next to the front door and headed out. Bella was waiting for her at the Grill having left the Gilbert house early to walk Barkley (neither teen seemed to even recognize what a dog was, let alone be trusted to take care of it for the day) and get road snacks. Renee had given them permission to throw everything they couldn't fit in the car in her garage and just forget about it.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

It was a little after sunset when they stood in the empty living room of their apartment.

"I thought we'd never finish it."

Bella growled taking sips of her water bottle. Jenna looked ready to pass out.

"Who knew we hoarded that much crap? Like your angel statues."  
"Be nice. I've collected some of those since before I can remember."  
"Like I said, loads of crap."

Bella stuck her tongue out

"Wanna grab a bite before we head to mom's place?"  
"I already sent Mason there with the furniture."

Jenna studiously ignored Bella's amused smile.

"Nice of him to give up his day just to lend some muscle today."  
"Mhm, yeah"  
"And he came by on his own too."  
"He is nice, I told you.

Bella walked around the dog to her friend and took her hands.

"Jen, I love you, you know that but you do know that 'just friends' don't do all this stuff on a moment's notice, right?"  
"Bella..."  
"Hey, it's okay. I won't push it."

Mason chose that moment to come back. When he leaned against the open door, it took Bella everything she had not to smirk at Jenna's unabashed ogling. It was definitely a great view but she wasn't interested in wolves. Just imagine all the fleas! She bit back a shot of laughter as she decided to get him a flea collar for his birthday.

"All done? Thanks Mason."

The tall werewolf just nodded, looking right through her and straight at Jenna. Bella followed his eyes and bit back a smile realizing that she was third wheel.

"I'll be heading to mom's place myself. I want to pack the rest of Bark's stuff and his bed. See you tomorrow?"  
"Tomorr-? Yeah, sure whatevs. Just check on the kids and I'll take the bus tomorrow."

Jenna smiled at her, with just enough of a warning in her voice to keep her opinion of 'Jenna and Mason humping on a tree' to herself, and Mason tossed her the keys back. Bella took the leash and the four legged mop named Barkley yawned and followed her to the cool night outside.

"Just friends, my exceptional ass."

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

After making one last stop at her mother's house, to pack a few things and return a few calls and a long email exchange with Renee, Bella set out to return to her new home.

Munching on a small package of double roasted chips, pizza flavor, her favorite, she drove the SUV back away from civilization and towards Mystic Falls, a Barry White tape that was already in the car playing and Barkley the Barky had made himself useful in the passenger's seat staring out the window and occasionally barking or howling along with the music. Or when he saw a bird. Or when a butterfly batted its wings in a some other state.

When she reached the bridge the car's owners had met their untimely end, Bella slowed to take the view in fully. Despite it being night, the falls that gave the small town its name were discreetly lit and magnificent.

She nearly missed the figure in black lying directly on the path of her headlights. Barky was shouting at the top of his tiny lugs when she threw the wheel sideways away from the figure and hoped she hadn't swerved too badly and ended in the riverlake. The figure was still there when she cut the engine and gingerly stepped out of the car.

"Barkley, shut up!"

She flung the door closed effectively muting the little dog. Then she approached the figure. It was face down and looked male, slowly her gut twisting in each and every way in warn.

 _"He's dead, just get the hell out of here"_

"What if he's not? I can't run away if he's alive"

 _"Yeah, maybe he's under the evil eye!"_

"Shut up"

Bella ordered herself realizing that even her gut was mocking her. God she needed some serious help in the future! Arguing with herself had kept her calm when she neared the body and now she knelt by it, intending to just check for a pulse quickly. As soon as her fingers met flesh and she began pressing around, the figure moved way too fast and pinned her to the ground. One hand wrapped around her rendering her hands immobile, the other fisting in her hair, her head pulled backwards, the face at her exposed throat.

'Oh crap'

She was pretty sure she could feel the prickling of teeth, no... were those fangs?, when her assailant's nostrils expanded, a tongue flicked at her own pulse point where drops of her blood lay, he drew back just enough for her to see his shocked face before he was gone in the blink of an eye. Bella drew her legs to herself, wrapped her arms around them and cried with little Barkley pawing the window above her barking as loud as he could and the scent of rust, salt and copper of her blood tricking down her neck.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Bella was trembling as she sat in the car parked right outside the police station. Her instincts were telling her to follow along with the dude's... the vampire's instructions, hide, get the hell out of the area and never return. Logic was telling her to go inside the station, find Chief Liz and tell her about it all. Then why couldn't she move?

Rubbing the space between her brows, brown eyes flitted to the rearview mirror. Terror had them wide.

"Get it together Swan!"

Taking another breath she looked at the sleeping dog, the constant barking had wiped the little fella out, and got out of the car leaving the window open a little. Five minutes later she was back. Chief Liz had the night off.

"Let's just go home Barky"

Barkley didn't even open an eye as Bella turned the engine on and started driving again. When she got to the Gilbert house, she checked on the teens. Jeremy was wrapped around a dark haired and very naked girl; Elena was thankfully alone in her bed and cuddling a pillow. Bella wanted to sleep as well but she knew it wouldn't work. Instead she placed Barkley on her bed to continue sleeping and stepped into the shower. Her skin picked and prickled around her ribcage where an arm shaped bruise where and so did the side of her neck.

Once washed and cleaned she got dressed in a pair of denim shorts and a short sleeved high necked t-shirt that covered her brand new bruises and dressed the wound on her neck.

Then she went to the kitchen to make herself a pot of soothing valerian tea, think and email her father. With the morning light, she wasn't any calmer and so she decided to get baking. It always calmed her. She was nearly done with the first batch of sugar cookies and was about to get glazing (because glaze makes everything better) when a thumb was heard from upstairs and Jeremy traipsed into the kitchen, mouth stretched in a yawn.

"Munchies?"

Bella threw him a look.

"Couldn't sleep. Cooking and baking helps me. Feel like giving a hand?"

Jeremy nodded, yawned again and popped a cookie in his mouth. At then another. Bella snorted at the speed the cookies went from plate to mouth.

"Your idea of helping?"  
"I am! Now you have fewer cookies to glaze."

Bella rolled her eyes at the teenager and stopped his munching short when she handed him the tray with the chocolate chip cookies to put in the oven.

"That the girl you were telling me about?"

Jeremy froze and slammed the oven door with a harsh bang.

"What about her?"

Bella leaned against the counter.

"Nothing. Just she could leave through the front door you know. Letting the girl jump down from your window can leave her with couple broken bones. Not exactly my idea for a pleasant morning after, you know?"

Jeremy's fists were tight and for a minute Bella thought she had gone too far. Then the teenage boy relaxed and sat in a chair heavily.

"I don't think she's sticking around much loner anyway. It took me saying I have more pot to get her to come by last night"

He winced and looked at Bella under his lashes. She shook her head raising both hands.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that drugs part. I also won't pester you with advice about it, just know I'm here, okay?"

She squeezed his shoulder with a crooked smile. Jeremy nodded and both pretended that he had something in his eye when he wiped them.

"Help me with breakfast?"

The breakfast dish was warm and sweet smelling when Elena showed up, already dressed and ready for the day. She bid them good morning and poured herself some coffee. Then she sat down at the table picking on her breakfast and ignoring them. Jeremy rolled his eyes at his sister and her cell phone before tucking into his own breakfast. Bella bit back a sign before pouring one more cup of coffee for herself.

"Do you guys have plans for the day?"

Elena shrugged her shoulders before muttering something about a back to school party. Jeremy's eyes rolled even more and bit in his steaming breakfast harder.

"Good God, was I ever like this in my teens? It's a miracle I made it out of them, if so"

Bella thought with a mental snort that she covered with a bite of breakfast. Just when the silence became nerve wracking Barkley raced into the room barking loudly. Elena shrieked away from the furball of energy. Jeremy took the bacon from his mock-pizza breakfast and tossed them at the dog. Since Bella's stepfater often did the same, the doggie was more than well trained to avoid being hit with the bacon and catch it with his mouth instead.

"Can I play with him Bella?"  
"You already are, just be gentle with him. I do have to return him soon you know."

Bella laughed and watched Jeremy play with his food and the little dog as if he was five instead of fifteen. Elena threw the pair a look before making up an excuse and leaving them, cell phone firmly attached at her ear.

"Well, if you want to play with Barkley for the day, it's fine with me. I'll drive over to your dad's practice and set up."  
"Do you know when aunt Jenna will be back?"

Elena asked from the doorway. Bella shrugged

"No idea. Give her a call?"  
"Mind if I go to that party? Won't be back late."  
"The back to school party at the lake you mentioned?"

The seventeen year old girl nodded. Bella was half considering asking how she can party less than a week after her parents' deaths but decided not to. She couldn't understand 17 year olds when she was one! She nodded at Elena and decided to get on with her own day, starting with grabbing one of the cherry/berry combo juices from the cooler in the car. She tasked Jeremy to take Jenna's boxes and bags from the SUV and put them in Jenna's room at their house while she moved hers to her own car. The creamy blue Mini barely fit it all and her, let alone the teenage Jeremy who got in the passenger's seat right as Bella was starting the engine.

"Need a lift somewhere?"

She asked around a mouthful of juice. Jeremy shrugged the shoulder that wasn't full of dog.

"I'm going with you. Elena is going to have the other two bimbos in here for a primp session or whatever she likes to call it. I haven't done something to deserve that! Please take me with you!"

Bella snorted at the mock desperation of his tone and shook her head amused.

"Fine. Do come along pal. You would be useful in lugging all that crap and to showing me where your dad's practice actually is."

She drove in silence for a few minutes that was only broken by Barkley's deep purrs and occasional bark elicited by Jeremy's fingers while she was enjoying her liquid breakfast. She kept stealing glances at the teenage boy wondering exactly how to broach his drug taking issue, if it was even her job to. She had hinted about it to Jenna who had taken it in stride, saying that she too was a recreational drug used his age and had grown out of it. Bella wasn't so casual though.

"Turn the merry go around in the plaza and then go left"

Jeremy instructed as they reached the small town center and then went to a series of quiet side roads and Jeremy instructed her to stop at a pie shop. Across the street from it was a fenced yard, guarded by loopy looking gnomes no less, and a two story building.

"Here we are."

Jeremy said and hopped out of the car to unlock the gate and motioned her inside before he popped the bright orange beanie of a gnome and grabbed a pair of ketys to open the house's heavy oak door after setting Barley down who immediately started barking at the gnomes.

Inside the building was done in earth tones. On the side was a glass door, clearly marked as "G. Gilbert, MD" straight ahead a staircase and under it another door.

"Dad's practice is on the ground floor, his lab in the basement and the apartment on the first floor. Come on in, I'll show you around. Will the doggie be okay?"

Before Bella could respond that Barkley was going to be okay 'chatting' with the gnomes, the little furball chased an invincible butterfly inside the house and rushed upstairs.

"He's fine."

Bella laughed and entered the house. Jeremy spent some time telling her about how his parents had bought the place to move in after their marriage but ended up taking over the original house and converting this one to a practice and places for the siblings to live in.

"Where are your grandparents?"  
"Moved to Maine of all places!"

Bella knew deflection when she saw it, she meant the Gilberts, not the Sommers, but she let it slide. Instead she let Jeremy open the apartment's door, followed the doggie inside again and then got to work. They were taking a break after moving all her bags inside when she decided to say what was in her mind

"Jer?"  
"Mhm?"

Brown eyes met and held

"I know it's none of my business, but you really should stop taking drugs. You're a smart guy; you can see how it's bad for you, right?"

She meant well, she really did, but when Jeremy's voice was a little stoned and faraway sounded when he agreed to stop, she thought her words were in vain. He was already too high up to listen.

* * *

 **A/N: So sorry to have dissapeared guys but, let's just say that real life got a bit too real and my online one had to to pause for a bit. All's well now however (well, for the most part anyway) so I'm back with a new chapter for you all. Hope you like it :)**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

While Bella got settled in and Jeremy played with the small dog two brothers in the large mansion at the edge of the woods were arguing. Stefan Salvatore had no idea his older brother, Damon, was in town and he didn't like it one bit.

"Why are you here Damon?"

He asked for the umpteenth time. Damon was largely ignoring him knowing it drove his little brother crazy. It was fun delving to their old roles of asshole older brother and eager beaver younger brother but both men knew there were more important reasons for the other's presence rather than nostalgia for their hometown.

"I hear you're back in school. Again. That must suck. Sitting all day, listening to stupid teenagers whine whine whine while you know more than the teachers could ever hope to learn. Have you ever thought that if you haven't learned your stuff in 145 years, you're probably never going to?"

Damon needled seeing a large vein throb in Stefan's left temple. He took a languish sip of his scotch waiting for Stefan to crack.

"At least I know enough to warrantee my staying in school instead of fighting in the front lines. You must have been bad enough to be able to take so many leaves of absence to scamper back home and no one minding!"

Stefan's verbal hit was below the waist and Damon let a hiss out along with his fangs descending ever so slightly. Stefan smirked showing his big brother his own fangs.

"At least I had the glory of being in a war instead of hiding in my library!"  
"Not my fault I can read!"

It wasn't until a gust of air caused the large portrait above the mantle place to fall off the hook that the two brothers realized they were up close and personal ready to fight. They jumped apart, both turning too fast for the human eye to see to look at the fallen painting.

"Now look what you've done!"

Stefan growled going to retrieve the portrait and examine it. Damon rolled his eyes

"You do realize I'm not responsible for the weather, right?"

Despite his unpleasant feelings about the man in the painting Damon strolled close to his brother to look in the eyes of his father. The artist had captured their father's essence on the paper perfectly. Giuseppe Salvatore glared from the canvas the same way he looked at everyone he considered beneath him (which was literally everyone) in real life.

For a minute neither brother spoke, each lost in memory. In the same memory. The one of their father as he conspired with young Katherine's companion to remove the vampiress off their estate. The companion's apologetic words after it while she tended to Stefan's wounded throat. Them accusing her until... until she showed them her own fangs and told them to grow a pair and open their damn eyes. Stefan sighed as he then remembered his father's cutting words when he revealed his changing status at him before ordering both Stefan's and Damon's deaths for they could choose to become vampires. Damon swallowed as he remembered the outcome.

"Have you seen them?"

Stefan asked quietly as he raised the portrait with one arm to put it back on the wall, from where Giusseppe could judge them once again.

"Them?"

Stefan looked at Damon.

"Them. The human girl that looks like Katherine and the one who looks so much like Isabella"

Damon shook his head

"I heard about Katherine's look-alike and I 'ran into' the other one last night while getting dinner."

Stefan raised an eyebrow at the euphemism but Damon rolled his eyes. They argued about their meals every time they met. Stefan believed in draining small, flurry and cute animals of their blood. Damon preferred human blood because it was their natural food source. Rather than get into it again, Stefan remained on point.

"I saw them both. The Katherine look-alike is called Elena. She's fully human and so unlike Katherine..."

Green eyes drifted as he mentally compared the two women that could be twins if it wasn't for the difference in hair and that Elena wasn't born when Katherine was, more than 500 years ago. Damon's blue eyes twinkled

"Good, because Katherine always preferred me."  
"In your dreams perhaps"

Damon didn't rise to the bait. Mainly because he was quite unsure of Katherine's affections, the seducing vampiress had shared both his bed and Stefan's and had given both her blood to start their transformation when their father killed them, but also because he couldn't quite fit the calm and self assured vampiress to the frightened woman he unknowingly attacked the night before. That woman looked, smelled, and breathed like Isabella but it couldn't be her. Could it?

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

It was in the early a.m when Zach, the brother's public uncle even though he was their descendant, drove to the Gilbert laboratory. Liz Forbes was sitting at the steps of the house after having hidden her own car a couple streets away.

"Everything alright? You sounded distracted on the phone?"

The blond woman asked him. Zach shook his head

"Yeah, my other nephew decided to show up unannounced"

Liz nodded sympathetically.

"That doesn't sound pleasant. Is he bad blood?"

Zach looked at her for a minute. How did he tell her that Damon, in human terms, was a serial killer with a tendency to befriend women who ended up giving him their money and dying when they gave him all their blood? How could he share his suspicions that the streak of deaths were probably Damon's fault too, now that he showed up looking like the cat that devoured the canary?

"Let's just say he and I never saw eye to eye."

Liz rubbed his arm.

"I have my share of that. If ever you feel like talking, I' right here"

Zach nodded his thanks knowing it'd never happen. Then he stood back when Liz retrieved the key from the beanie of the dopey looking dwarf and unlocked the front door. Together they entered the house.

"Something feels different"

Liz remarked, he hand on her gun at her hip. Zach nodded, the air felt cleaner, when it shouldn't.

"Let's get it over with"

He proposed and moved first down the flight of stairs to the underground lab, winching when the wooden step winced under his weight. Liz was on his heels, moving her hand from the butt of her gun long enough to hand him the lab keys.

Both shielded their eyes when the bright sun imitating lights turned on. The lab looked like a cross between a greenhouse and Dr Jekyll's laboratory. Half of it had counters various equipment to aid in Grayson's interest in homeopathic treatments. The other half housed plants raging from chamomile and valerian to marihuana and the town's local herb, vervain in neat rows. Liz's eyes fell on the first potted marijuana.

"Is it me or does this one look smaller than before?"

Zach looked at it too

"Not just you. It's about 2/3rds its previous size"  
"Guess now we know where the surge of illegal pot originated."

Her mouth set in a grim line. Only the town's council and the Gilberts had keys of the lab. She had no idea how to approach a grieving family about one of them dealing narcotics.

"I can sit down the Gilbert kids if you prefer. Give them a warning before you have to officially be involved"

Liz's chuckle was dry and mirthless.

"We'll see, but thanks Zach. Isn't Elena dating your nephew according to the grapevine?"  
"You mean according to Caroline"

Zach joked and moved to start inspecting the vervain plants before he pulled a small pruning hook from his backpack. Liz ignored the jab at her daughter's gossipy nature and repeated the question. Zach was about to admit it was so and that he planned on giving the 'talk' to Stefan, which was going to be a hoot! Considering it all, when the laboratory door was pushed open abruptly and a cold voice called out

"Stop!"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Both Zach and Liz turned around. Liz's hands were extended, gun pointed straight at the newcomer. The newcomer held an identical stance and a gun was pointing at them. Looking past the gun Zach recognized the girl from the Gilbert funeral. The one with the dog.

Liz took the girl in noting she didn't tremble and that the gun was securely gripped and promptly deciding to speak down to her wasn't a swell idea. Instead she kept her gun pointed at the girl. The same girl that stayed with Jenna, who made a comment about covering up vampire attacks. What was she doing here?

"Who do you call when you catch the police breaking and entering?"

Bella asked, one side of her mouth tilted in a humorless grin. Zach held back the urge to snort. The girl wasn't exactly tall, dressed in a faded Led Zeppelin t-shirt that fell off her shoulder and two things on her head as if she was trying to communicate with planet zhong. The gun was intimidating however and so were the red marks on the side of her neck.

"I have permission to be here. Is that gun registered?"  
"It is. So why don't you stop ruining that plant before I show you how well I can point and shoot?"

Liz decided to change tactics, considering she and Zach were kind of breaking in, since the agreement with Grayson was verbal and Grayson was dead.

"The plant Zach is ruining, it's deadly to vampires. We need it to protect people and Grayson Gilbert grew it. Along with the pot on the side of the plant."

Bella's lip quirked but she didn't look away from Liz and that Zach guy.

"I'll get the locks changed."  
"What are you doing here?"

Zach asked.

"I'm living in the apartment above. The Gilbert house was getting a tad crowded. Wait, you said a plant is deadly to vampires? Since when?"

Liz and Zach exchanged looks.

"Since ever."

Zach replied. Bella was shaking her head.

"No wonder you can't catch your vampire. You don't know the first thing about them!"

Liz stared at the girl

"Why don't we both put the guns down because, frankly, I'm getting a cramp and compare notes?"

Bella nodded but waited till Liz began lowering her own gun to do the same. Once Liz's gun was back in its holster at her hip, she placed her own next to a bright yellow plant. Then she took the few steps needed to reach Liz and Zach wondering if the plant could block the sparkling of vampires and save the retinas of the nearby humans. Perhaps it wouldn't be deadly for vampires but it'd definitely be good for the humans.

"What's that?"

Liz asked when Bella reached them. She was about to make the introductions but the somewhat healed puncture wound on the girl's neck got her hairs up,

"I had a run in with your vampire last night at the bridge."  
"And you walked away? You're lucky"

Zach felt his stomach tighten. If she had seen Damon, he definitely would have to come clean.

"What happened? Why didn't your report it?"  
"I would if you were at the station. The receptionist said you were working the day shift and I didn't think it'd be a good idea to just tell anyone. As for what happened, I was coming back from Jacksonville, a guy was laying face down on the bridge. Went out to see if he needed help, he tried to bite me, he decided not to after giving me this and a couple bruises, told me to forget it ever happened and blurred away."

Bella's voice came out much stronger than she felt. In fact she felt quite queasy at the memory of those icy blue eyes. Eyes that should be red or black, but weren't.

"You don't seem too shaken up."  
"I'm good at pushing uncomfortable things to the back of my mind."

She said, omitting how it made sleep impossible. They didn't need to know that.

"Tell you what, why don't you join us at the council meeting tomorrow? This is something the rest need to hear"

Zach proposed, hoping to be able to get rid, or imprison Damon the next day. Stefan would help too. Liz nodded

"It's a good idea"  
"Um, what council would that be?"  
"It's a council made up of founding families. We make sure to keep our townspeople safe from supernaturals."

Bella blinked

"That's actually smart."  
"Gee, thanks"

Liz muttered under her breath, causing Zach to grin at her. Then he tore up a handful of vervain leaves and a tiny flower and handed them to Bella.

"You'll find out more tomorrow but for now, use this for your morning coffee, like you'd use tea leaves or Greek coffee, or somewhere where it has contact with your skin. Even the smell of it is enough to keep a vampire off you."

Liz stifled a large yawn and made small talk with Bella, while Zach quickly finished relieving the plant from its leaves and flowers and put it in a black sack. Then everyone walked out of the lab, Bella picked up her gun, locked the lab and kept the keys.

Goodbyes and goodnights were said as Bella waited for them to leave the yard before closing and locking the front door. Then she opened her hand and threw the vervain on the floor with a gasp.

"Shit that hurts!"

She examined her palm and blew softly on the burn the plant had left there. On the mirror mounted on the wall she saw the small veins protruding under her eyes, keeping company to the eye bags the sleepless nights recently had given her.

"What the hell?"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"If I keep this no sleeping thing my eye bags will be just in time for Halloween. I'll only need a pair of bright red contact lenses and be a vampire!"

Bella muttered the next morning. She was tired, cranky, hungry, sleepless and on top it all, her hand hurt. The burning hadn't gone away even though she had used the better half of a burn cream on it. In the end she had wrapped it and downed a Panadol. And coffee. Lots of coffee.

She had spent the night unpacking. After the impromptu meeting with the sheriff and her friend, she had headed to the old medicine practice to borrow some supplies for her injuries and then began unpacking. She was more than a little freaked out over the whole "local herb burns vamps and oops it burns humans too" thing. Only it didn't quite burn humans, did it? It didn't burn Sheriff Liz and it didn't burn that Salvatore chump and both were plucking away at it. So why did it burn her?

Besides the obvious logical reason which wasn't logical, nor possible, at all? It was this thought that had kept her from sleeping and no matter which way she cut at it, there was no fitting explanation.

Unless...

unless she was a vampire...

... which she wasn't, right? She'd know if she was! Right? And she knew she wasn't...

She had even stood in front of the tall mirror in her new bedroom examining herself. Her eyes were the same as they had always been, a dark-ish chocolate-y brown. No hint of red or gold in them. Opening the curtains to let the sunshine in, only served to wake up Barkley and send him sleeping on the other side of her bed. No sparkles on her skin when she stood directly under it, thankfully. She had also checked her mouth despite knowing well that vampires have no fangs. In the end she abandoned her little project, feeling like a persecutor of witches in Salem examining a possible witch, and had more coffee.

"God what a mess! At least the unpacking is done!"

She said out loud and put two more used tea bags under her eyes as she laid down on the bed next to a snoring doggie. A doggie that had slept through everything.

"I hope Jenna has had a better couple of nights."

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

At the same time, mayhem was happening at the Salvatore house. Zach was irate when he arrived after escorting Liz back to her house and found Damon dipping into the local college sorority girls, while Stefan was busy ignoring his brother and writing into his journals.

"Give me strength."

He muttered eying the ceiling and beyond. Then he brought his fingers to his mouth and gave a loud whistle. As many of the college girls could move jumped up. The rest sort of groaned. Zach just hoped they were still alive.

"Time to head out girls. Party's over."  
"Awww party pooper."

Damon mocked with a smirk. Zach's face remained grave and the two locked in a silent battle of wills. When Zach's eye glittered with repressed rage, Damon frowned and then loudly compelled his 'company' to butt out. As soon the sorority chapter was out, Zach rounded on him.

"Did you attack a girl last night on the bridge?"

Damon rolled his eyes and headed to the low table in front of the sofa to get his drink.

"What if I did? I'm a healthy boy and need to eat."  
"She's still alive."

Inwardly Damon shuddered at the memory, and the taste

"And here I thought you'd be pleased I didn't kill 'er."

Zach fisted both hands knowing that if he attacked Damon, he'd be the one that died.

"Damon, tomorrow there's a council meeting. She's going to come and identify you. No one has seen you yet, you need to take your 'healthy appetite' and leave."

Stefan appeared at the doorway.

"Is that true, Damon?"  
"Spare me the sensitivities St. Stefan."

Damon snarled. His brother had the uncanny ability to ignore his own murdering sprees but always blamed Damon for his. At least he, Damon, didn't always finish off his meals. A few times, okay a very rare times, he ate just enough to not kill the person and then compelled them to forget it all.

"How many people have you killed Damon?"  
"Did you do it? You killed Elena's parents?"

Stefan and Zach spoke at the same time. Damon took a deep breath and then turned on Stefan.

"A-Who's Elena?"

Then he turned on Zach.

"B-no I didn't. I went by the bridge yesterday, exactly because it's accident prone. Who would notice one more?"

He waved the accusations away

"I ran this girl over, went to taste her, saw who she was ... and tailed it away."

He finished lamely. While Zach frowned but Stefan nodded and turned to the human in the room

"He does have a point Zach. If he means the girl I've met, then she's a lookalike for a vampire we knew back then when we were humans."

Zach sighed

"Another one? You have got to be kidding me."  
"How did you meet her Zach?"

Stefan asked as he walked to the bureau in the corner to pour a drink for himself.

"Liz met her when the Gilberts died and today she caught us when we were at the practice."

Damon waggled his brows.

"Naughty naughty zach. Carrying on with a married woman? tsk tsk."

Zach and Stefan rolled their eyes in tandem.

"She's divorced. And do not change the subject Damon. That girl you attacked is going to give your resemblance to the meeting, tomorrow. Well, today."

He amended after a glance out the windows showed the sun having just rising. Damon took a slow sip draining his scotch. Damon's brows scrunched together as he thought.

"She won't do it to my face, now, will she?"  
"What are you talking about Damon?"

Stefan's brows drew even closer together in what Damon liked to call "trying to poop but forgot vampires can't" expression.

"I'm saying, all dear Zach has to do is... go on a little holiday or 'down under' and I'll attend this town council meeting in his stead."

He flourished, his hangs visible for all to see. Zach glowered and considered, not for the first time, how good it'd be for the world if got rid of Damon. Even if he did die in the process.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

Around the breakfast table, at the Gilbert house, Jeremy was busy drawing on his book, something he hadn't done in ages, Elena was busy fixing her nails with a small paper file while Jenna was staring at them both over the rim of her coffee cup. Next to her, Bella was fighting to keep her eyes open while Barkley was running amok in the back yard doing what he did best. Barking.

"You seem to be nice and not high, Jer"

Jenna remarked. The teenage boy shrugged one shoulder, gave her a quick glance and said,

"Should I be?"

Jenna arched a brow at Bella who yawned and shrugged herself. She had told Jenna about her chat concerning drugs with Jeremy in her car the previous day. The boy had said he'd stop but she hadn't expected him to go cold turkey like that. Or be seemingly A-okay doing it.

Jenna turned her attention to Elena and her grooming.

"Do you have any plans for the day Elena?"

The teenage girl shrugged one shoulder in perfect mimicry of Jeremy and muttered something about spending time with her friends. When asked about going back to cheering, Elena shuddered and made a disgusted sound.

"No, thanks."

The adults in the room exchanged another glance and another yawn. Soon it was time for the teens to head to school, which they did calmly enough. Bella waved bye, Jenna made an attempt at parenting, Jeremy let it roll off with an awkward reply while Elena made a 'good job' joke as she left.

"What are you waiting for?"

Jenna asked Bella whose hand was suspended in midair.

"The laugh track."

She replied. When Jenna raised a brow in question, Bella continued

"You have to admit Jen, this was nearly a perfect family breakfast scene from any sitcom."

Jenna snorted and refilled her coffee mug.

"True that."  
"Did I tell you what happened last night?"

And so it was, over coffee, like always, the two best friends spoke and shared their truths. Bella about surprising sheriff Liz and Zach Salvatore at the lab, their talk about vampires and their weaknesses, and the meeting that night. Including the burn in her hand that Jenna shrugged off saying the plant was probably something Bella was allergic to. Jenna talked about her plan to crash said meeting and demand to be included as Elena and Jeremy's guardian despite not being a Gilbert herself.

"Sounds like a plan."

Bella said with a smile, and the two girlfriends shared another cup of coffee while Barkley amused himself with the wildlife of the backyard.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The Founder council meeting was traditionally held in the oldest building of the town. The Founder's Hall. In 1946 a fire had destroyed over half of it, leading to it being rebuilt in a more modern fashion that still mimicked the original traditional style fairly well. But, as a result the rooms that weren't used as often remained in their old style, hidden away from the public eye, leading anyone who visited the building to have a sharp sense of stepping back through time. It wasn't easy to find the meeting room, for it wasn't listed in the directory by the main doors but Bella had been given instructions by Liz. Up to the second floor and then to the right at the Files room and then up the round staircase to the frankly huge attic.

"If we stumble upon Scooby and the gang in here, I get dibs on Freddy."

Jenna muttered as she was behind Bella holding her hand.

"You sure about that? I thought you'd go for Scooby himself."

Bella joked in a hushed voice. It felt wrong to speak at a normal volume somehow.

"Fuck you."

Jenna hissed, laughter coloring her voice.

"That's the idea, dear."

Bella responded with a giggle and the two had to stop and compose themselves before knocking on the grand double door at the end of the short corridor of the attic.

"Here goes."

Jenna breathed before squaring her shoulders, fixing the perfect empty 'you will listen to me and I do not care how little you want to' air hostess smile on her face, and knocked.

The door was answered by the mayor himself. Jenna brushed his arguments about her being there and how improper it was since she wasn't a founder family descendant aside easily.

"It's my sister that was murdered Richard. I have every right to find out what you're doing about it. I am also Elena's and Jeremy's aunt and legal guardian. Until either reaches adulthood, I'm afraid you're stuck with me representing them."  
"But John..""John has washed his hands off the children. He doesn't get to pick and choose, Richard. I could always of course submit an article at the Herald about how only the male descendants of the Founder families are allowed and the only reason you're not scowling at Liz being here, despite it being her job, is that Bill has moved away. I don't think you'd like being outed as a sexist on an election year Richard, would you?"

Jenna finished with the perfect Crest smile. Bella, much like Carol Lockwood, was hiding her smile behind her hand when she barely heard Liz mutter under her breath.

"Burn."

The awkwardness of the situation finished abruptly as Carol lifted a fairly archaic looking carafe and offered coffee. Bella greeted the esteemed mayor with a soothing hello but his grip on her hand was as limp as wilted cabbage.

Carol Lockwood made a show of introducing them to the rest of the attendees. Logan Fell, who was a journalist at the local paper and handled the news.

"What about the news on TV?"  
"I dabble."  
"To anything with a skirt."

Jenna informed Bella in her ear. The latter smiled and had to pull her hand back rather forcefully to release it. Carol went on with the introductions. Then was Liz, whom Bella knew already, Richard and Carol herself who, as she said, made sure the public events went on smoothly.

"It's a tough job but someone has to do it."

Carol self congratulated. Bella nodded, thinking that she could grow to like the woman if she had to.

"What about Mr. Salvatore? I don't see him around but it was him who invited me."  
"Where is Zach, Liz?"  
"How should I know? He said he'd meet me here."

Liz responded, her eyes falling on Bella's bandaged hand.

"Are you alright?"  
"Bella is an incredible klutz."

Jenna snorted, making Bella poke her in the ribs. The two had decided not to share Bella's burn as being caused by the plant. 'You don't want these idiots going after you with stakes' Jenna had reasoned. Bella had sighed 'I definitely wouldn't mind a steak though. I'm starving.'

"The dog bit me this morning. He didn't like waiting to head out for his morning business"

Bella lied with a practiced shrug. As she had hoped, the mention of Barkley sent Carol to cooing sounds.

"Where is the little guy? Why didn't you bring him over?"  
"Jeremy said he wanted to draw him."  
"It's not like this room could fit all of us plus Barkley's ego"

Jenna said causing everyone to laugh, even though she wasn't joking. The laughter was cut short when a lean form filled the still open doorway. Bella sucked in a breath as she recognized her vampire attacker.

"I'm Damon Salvatore. Uncle Zach sent me in his place; he had a sudden trip to take. Down Under"

Liz and Richard spoke at the same time

"He didn't tell me anything."  
"Welcome aboard, son."

And then glared at each other. Damon handed a small-ish wooden box to Liz.

"Uncle Zach wanted me to hand this to you Sheriff. He said it was this week's vervain supply."

Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, Bella thought and immediately lost all respect she could have for the Sherriff when she accepted the box with a smile (had she never seen a good looking guy before?) and proceeded to open it, extract a small amount of dried flowers and dumped them in the water carafe. Carol poured it in glasses and handed everyone a glass. Bella noticed Damon brought it to his lips and then lowered it just before it had time to reach his lips. Then he smiled at her.

She took a sip, grateful for her foresight to pop a strepsils candy in her mouth beforehand and swallow both the sore throat candy and the vervain infused water both at the same time, minimizing the burn. She gave Mr Charmypants a smile of her own, enjoyed seeing his frown, and then let out a sigh when no one else seemed to have a problem with the herbal water.

"Now onto business."

Richard said, and then embarked on a speech no one paid attention to. Damon spent the time his eyes locked on 'the girl'. The girl whose vampire look-a-like he had paid near no attention to back in the day, choosing to spend his time near Katherine. The girl his father had taken an easy liking to and whom he kept closed in his office for hours at a time. He and Stefan had joked that someone their age was going to become their step-mother, neither noticing how little Katherine had liked the idea. The girl his father had invited to the council meeting a few times. The human girl he had tried to bite and stopped short as a memory of her arguing with Katherine about how cruel it was to play with humans like they were dolls.

He came to his senses when he felt his fangs emerge, and hissed at her, but she only rolled her eyes at him. How could two people look so alike? Katherine and that Elena girl, Stefan was so enamored by. Isabella and this Bella chick. Just what were the chances?

"..And now, onto the new issues. First, who is going to replace Grayson at the hospital?"  
"My sister is returning soon from her Doctors Without Borders tour. She knows all about our little issues here. I can ask her to move and she'll do it. "  
"That's a good possibility. It'll add more women to the roster."

Liz barely kept herself from rolling her eyes as she muttered under her breath.

"Idiot."  
"It'll also add more Fells though, isn't that going to be an issue when it comes to voting?"

Carol said thoughtfully. Liz nodded her agreement and even Jenna voiced hers. Logan's mouth twisted in displeasure

"What do you suggest then? An ad in the papers or to let more outsiders in?"

His eyes fell on Bella as he stressed the word 'more'. Jenna's pinkie finger tightened around Bella's.

"That wouldn't be a bad idea you know. If we assume that the vampire that killed my sister and Grayson, did it knowing they were members, what best way to ensure the safety of the rest?"  
"Yeah, yeah. I agree with Logan. We shall make do until Meredith returns and takes over."

Richard's tone was final and he banged the little gavel by his hand on its matching base.

"Speaking of my sister's murder, where are you with finding who did it?"  
"Unfortunately we don't exactly have a list of vampires in the area for me to go and question, but that's what Bella is doing here. She had a run in with his vampire, at Wickery Bridge the night before last. She also has experience with vampires in general."

Damon sucked his breath as Bella nodded. He forced himself to chuckle along at Logan's lewd joke that everyone seemed to choose not to hear. He watched as Bella stood, opened her purse to retrieve a sketch and a handful of photos.

"Let me start by saying my experience with vampires comes first hand. I was stupid and naive enough to date one, back when I was in school. It ended with me bloodied and fighting for my life in a hospital bed. That's how I know that you're completely wrong about them coming out only at night. That's the boogey man."

Silence greeted her.

"They're fairly easy to spot actually. Just look for the overly pale people with the strangely colored eyes. The newcomers that seem to avoid direct sunlight. The people with large blue jewelry. The ones that stay slightly out of the public eye but gather all attention."

Damon noticed how her eyes slightly shifted out of focus when she mentioned the Lapis-antisun-cheat jewelry as if she had no knowledge of that little tidbit, yet she included it in. Interesting…

Bella handed the glossy photos to Jenna, who in turn gave them to Liz to study. As the photos made the rounds, Bella kept speaking, her fingers on the left hand, absentmindedly stroking the flesh of her right wrist. Her voice kept going from conscious to the absent tone Damon always associated with compulsion.

"The unwashed blond guy is the vampire that tried to kill me. The other photo is of my vampire boyfriend. Notice how the unwashed vampire has red eyes, while my ex had golden eyes. That indicates their difference in diet but makes zero difference when it comes to killing a vampire."

Bella's eyes found Damon's and held them.

"And this is the guy that attacked me on the bridge"

She held up the sketch.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Damon held his breath, fangs extracted, ready to bite his way out if he had to. She was supposed to be scared of him, for Pete's sake! He barely had time to sneak a look at the sketch before the founding members circled it like vultures. When the sketch made its way to him, he felt his eyes widen even more. The resemblance was uncanny. He had never been happier that his face looked all scary and veiny and that his fangs completely altered the shape of his mouth before. It was him alright, with his vampire face on.

"Keep it people. It's a copy. I've made copies for everyone."

Liz said. And then, when the buzz faded, she turned to Bella.

"Who made the sketch?"  
"Jeremy did. He thinks it's my Halloween mask."

Jenna answered instead, waving the implications away with a shake of her hand. Liz nodded

"I spent the morning on the phone with your father, talking about how he dealt with the nest there."

Bella shook her head

"They were passing nomads; the nest was my boyfriend's family. They left of their own soon after the nomads were disposed of. The nomads were killed in a joint effort."  
"Joined effort?"

Logan asked, his pen flying on the notepad sitting on the arm of his chair.

"My hometown's area is home to a breed of a shape shifters. They turn to wolves and their saliva, along with their blood and pretty much everything about them, is deadly to vampires. All my father did was ask them to coat bullets, metallic stakes etc with the stuff. Some of them assisted in taking down the nomads physically too."

Damon noticed Richard shudder slightly at the word "wolves". His nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath, but the man reeked of human and not wolf.

"I don't know if this herb of yours is similar, but I cannot see why it can't work the same way. Super soakers do sound silly but..."

She shrugged one shoulder. The move so similar to that of her vampire twin that Damon nearly had a flashback.

Liz took over then and soon she and Richard were talking quietly among themselves. Logan was writing furiously and paid him no mind while Carol, whose fake tan looked more orange than cheetos all of a sudden, abandoned the coffee and the vervain infused water and opened a bottle of red wine instead.

Jenna turned to look at Bella who had a faraway look in her eyes.

"You alright?"

She asked quietly

"Yeah. Just remembering."

Bella shook her head in silent disagreement with her words and rubbed her fingers against the inside of her right wrist.

"I'll get us drinks and then we can go. I wanna show you where I used to sneak in as a teen with Mason."

Bella's nod was slow, her mind cast back to her stay in Forks, her relationship with her vampire suitor, the blasted baseball game. How her relationship ended when she realized that while having a romance with her tall and brooding Edward, it wasn't exactly good for her health. The two had kept in casual contact.

Jenna was pulled in conversation with carol about lending a hand in career night when she realized that Bella had never shared with her that vampires wear large blue jewelry but when she threw a look over her shoulder, she saw her friend talking with the piece of hunk called Damon. Then she decided to keep Carol talking, it had been a while since Bella had relaxed and taken a man in for a bit of fun.

"You seem to just run into undead trouble."

Damon said lightly, the ring that protected him from the sun's deathly consequences magically, glistening at the lights before he shoved that hand in his pocket.

"What can I say, I'm a danger magnet."

Bella's response was just as light. Then a slightly crooked smile graced her lips.

"We both know that my bridge attacker was you. All vamped up, but you. So why are you here, now, Mr. Salvatore?"  
"To make sure you keep that little tidbit of information to yourself."  
"Why would I do that? The 'bridge killer' murdered my best friend's sister and brother in law."

Damon leaned in closer

"Because if you do, I'll out your little vampire status and paint you as the killer. You did insert youself into this community and while the local cops are useless, they'll latch onto the opportunity of quickly closing this."

Bella's heart skipped a beat at the accusation, but she forced a light laughter to get past her lips

"Except I'm no vampire, so you might want to keep those accusations to yourself, if you don't feel like waking up to a very different kind of morning wood."

She sneered, not realizing a pair of fangs had began to extend in her own mouth. Then she stepped back, doused Damon with her vervain laced water, kneed him in the balls and spoke loudly

"NO Damon, I will not have sex with you for 20 bucks!"

Damon blinked feeling lucky that his black shirt ended up with most of the water rather than his face and watched as the women gathered themselves around Bella looking at him like scum, while the men shook their heads.

"You really shouldn't have tried to turn me into an "eat as much you like" buffet."

Bella spoke softly with a smirk that plainly said she had won, that he knew it and that she knew he knew it. Damon fought the desire to snap someone's neck and contended himself with making his way to the men for a stiff drink and a cigar.

Perhaps Zach had a point and he did have to get out town for a while.

* * *

 **A/N** : I'm so sorry to have disappeared on you guys but I have a good reason for it. Two weeks ago I had an accident and broke my arm. I'm on the mend, slowly but surely, but writing one handed isn't exactly my forte. Updates are coming, just perhaps a tad slower than normally.  
And now on the good stuff.  
What do you think is going on in the madhouse commonly known as Mystic Falls?


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The place Jenna and Mason used to go to when they were teenagers was still there. It was a three story place, about a third of the distance between the Mystic Falls and civilization. It wasn't brightly colored but it was well lit and it did shine like a beacon in the night sky.

"Now, that's my kind of place"

Bella sang, much to Jenna's amusement.

"I know, right?"

Jenna drove Bella's Mini to the side of the building and parked.

"We used to come out here every weekend, when we could get a car."  
"Definitely something to look forward to, then?"  
"Oh yeah. You know, all I ever wanted was to leave this place Bell, and now here I am. Back where I started."

Jenna sighed.

"Look at the bright side. You got me!"

Bella winked and opened the car door.

"Come on, I need a drink after today."

Inside the club was in a much better condition than Bella could imagine. Dark colored tiles, dark color on the walls, a pair of bouncers at the doors, a hostess standing behind the counter taking purses to a little room behind her. The main floor was all one area, disco Jenna said breaking in giggles mid-word, down the stairs was a more quiet area with

"Hot tubs?"

Jenna laughed at Bella's astonishment and pulled her by the arm to the bar of the upper floor and a pair of martinis.

"Wow, this place is amazing."

Bella exclaimed when they entered the club itself and leaned against a midnight blue wall with tiny silver glitter.

"I know."

Jenna grinned just as one of her favorite songs came on. She stood straighter and pulled on Bella's hand

"Come dance with me."

The two made their way to the floor and danced, half-way through, a guy asked Jenna to dance. She hesitated for a moment, and looked towards Bella who raised a challenging brow at her. Jenna accepted the challenge, nodded and danced with him. Cute guy but not her type. At all. Great dancer though, she thought and avoided Bella's eyes who was dancing by herself.

When the song ended Bella motioned to an empty tall table with a pair of bar stools with her head, indicating to go there. Jenna nodded and leaned in to thank the guy for the dance. Then she joined Bella at the table.

"That looked fun."

Bella smiled. Jenna shook her head with a mock exasperated expression on her pretty face.

"It was. Next guy's yours."

It was Bella's turn to give 'the' look. They ordered drinks, ate the salties and popcorn that came with, laughed, talked, and drank; just relaxing with each other and having fun for what felt like the first time in ages. They were sitting there with Jenna trying to catch the bartender's eye to order another round, when Bella heard a song come on

"Oh, I love this song. Come on Jenn."

Jenna stood to follow her friend but a server in a strappy top with the club's logo on it chose that time to go to their table. Bella shrugged, left Jenna to order for them and descended the steps to the dance floor by herself.

Jenna looked over to where Bella was planning to join her but some guy was faster. He tapped her on the shoulder and asked her to dance. Bella laughed and nodded.

"You go girl!"

Jenna cheered under her breath. Bella, who had her back on her friend, rolled her eyes and continued dancing. Neither noticed the two guys across the room.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

The men were both dressed in black and each nursing a drink. The shorter one was teasing the other.

"You know Damon, I would have loved to see that tiny slip of a girl douse you with vervain water and knee ball you."  
"Yeah yeah."

Damon muttered through closed lips. He was still annoyed, not to mention slightly singed, but also quite intrigued.

"One thing is certain little brother. That 'tiny slip of a girl' is one of us. Definitely."  
"That would explain the moves"

Stefan was joking as he pointed to the dance floor where Bella was rocking to the music and some guy was certainly enjoying the show. Damon opened his mouth to sneer something but...

The guy put his hands on Bella's waist and Damon felt jealousy rise up in him. He clenched his fists, broke his scotch glass and had to refrain himself from storming over there to either rip that guy a new one or kill him. Probably both. What the hell was wrong with him? He was in love with Katherine, not in lust with the spare!

Stefan turned to face his brother, surprised at the lack of response and he saw the look on Damon's face. He looked to where he was watching and saw Bella dancing with that guy still.

"This is interesting."

He muttered under his breath. On the bright side, Damon was definitely not interested in Elena, which was a good thing. He also seemed to be over Katherine if the murder looks he sent that scrawny human's way were anything to judge by, despite what he said. On the less bright side, his troublemaker brother was interested in the not quite human girl who also happened to be a complete look-a-like to a vampire of their past. Just like him and Elena.

"We're so messed up."

Damon shook himself and turned his head to Stefan

"What?"

Stefan was about to repeat what he meant but, Elena's aunt chose that moment to join Bella on the dance floor driving the letch away and allowing Damon to avoid murder for once.

"I said, why don't we go home? I'm feeling peckish"

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the (long) wait guys but while I'm better, so much better!, writing is taking its toll on me. Hope you like the chapter though!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The Gilbert house was suspiciously empty and quiet when Jenna woke up the next day. Her head was pounding, her limbs were hurting and her throat felt drier than the Sahara Desert. On top of it, her cell phone was ringing. She had never hated the sound of singing birds than she did in that moment.

"Hello?"

She growled in the receiver. When she received no reply, she looked through her mostly stuck together lashes to realize she held the device upside down. She groaned, turned it right side up, and repeated the greeting, sounding a little clearer than a drowsy elephant.

"Yes?... What?... Yes, yes of course... When?... I see... I can, of course. What time?... Right, right. I'll be there... Alright. Yeah, you too."

She yawned and threw the phone on the covers. Rubbing her eyes she looked around, squinted at the clock on the bedside table by her feet and then glared at the sun shining outside her tan curtains.

"Where is everyone?"

It took her a moment to untangle her feet from the covers and felt her way to the adjoining bathroom. The woman in the mirror looked more like the illegitimate child of Joker and Anna Nicole Smith after a crazy night at Gotham City, than herself. She turned 180 degrees, let her dress fall to the floor and entered the shower stall. When she emerged she was clean, her makeup gone down the drain and felt far more human.

The pounding behind her eyes however kept going strong. Reaching for her hairbrush, she noticed a single small white pill and a post-it underneath it.

"Take me."

She laughed, thanking Bella's mothering tendencies. She popped the pill with tap water, brushed her hair and her teeth, it really did smell like something had died in her mouth and, after wrapping herself in her fluffy bright yellow bathrobe, headed downstairs for a much needed cup of java. Another post-it, this time baby blue, was stuck to the carafe

"No way, Jose. Try the fridge."

In the fridge was a tall glass of OJ with a hot pink post-it on it.

"Drink me."

With a roll of her red rimmed eyes, Jenna obeyed and then had a cup of coffee to wash the juice down, grimacing at the tangy taste of the fruit. Another post it was on a wrapped plate with an egg and bacon sandwich, which she ate, per 'Eat me' order on the yellow posit. The final post-it, a faded green one, was on the fridge 'Kids at school, Barky with me, Me at work. Love you, B'.

"How many post-it blocks does this girl own?"

\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -

Once fed and hydrated, Jenna added her plate, juice glass and topped her coffee, ran the dish washing machine and went back upstairs. It took her about 20 minutes to put her flight hostess uniform on, blow dry her hair and pull it in a severe signon. Snapping her work overnight case closed, she checked the time, opted against leaving her own post-it note and left the house.

During last morning's dog walk, Bella had seen a wanted ad, told the barking dog to put a lid on it, applied and gotten hired on the spot. She had joked that working at a hardware store throughout her high school senior year was experience enough to get a job at a retail gig.

Jenna frowned when she reached the address Bella gave her and pushed the door open. Her friend was sitting behind a mahogany desk, tapping away on computer keys, an old lady sitting across from her, crying her eyes out while Barkley was being used like a furry handkerchief. Jenna waited until Bella gave the old lady a print-out, got the dog back, and then held the door open for the lady to pass, before rounding on her friend.

"You told me it was furniture retail."

"It is, in a way."

"It's the funeral parlor, Belle"

"A coffin is someone's last lodgings Jen. I wasn't quite sure how to tell you. Sorry."

She shrugged one shoulder, as Jenna snorted.

"You look professional. Went back to work?"

"My vacation's over. I got a flight in... four hours. Need to be there in one."

"D'you want my car?"

"Nah, I've got a taxi waiting outside. Want I do want, is you keeping an eye on the kids. I'll only be gone till tomorrow but... I've got a weird feeling."

Jenna admitted twisting her silver opalite pendant around her fingers, something she always did when she was nervous. The pendant was in the shape of a teardrop, touching her collarbone from a thin silver chain. The two were vacationing in New Orleans when Jenna saw a street booth that sold pendants identical to the one Bella wore. Bella didn't remember where she had gotten hers from, 'I've always had it' she'd shrug questions about it off. Jenna didn't like the dark blue of Bella's lapis lazuli one, so she chose a different one. Actually the seller, an older woman who claimed to know which stone was meant for each customer, chose it for her. It just so happened to be the same color as her eyes, Jenna joked.

"Where are you going?"

"Seattle"

"Tell my dad I said 'hi' and my mom to come back to get her dog already!"

Jenna laughed. She always stopped to see Charlie Swan whenever she flew to his whereabouts.

"Will do"

"Text me when you land"

"Alrighty, love you"

The two friends hugged, Jenna ruffled Barkley's fur and then she was gone.

After work was done Bella gathered the dog, descended the stairs to the mortuary, poor Barkley was snot covered and more than a little disgusting, to give him a quick wash. IT wasn't as creepy as she thought it'd be as long as it was lacking a 'special guest'.

"You need a bath buddy"

She told the dog and put him in one of the sinks. Thankfully Barkley seemed to agree because he stood still, for once, while he was being cleaned and then left a wet trail behind him as he perused the room. Bella found him sniffing the short and long fridge by one of the walls.

"What is this?"

She asked aloud, but all further investigation was cut short as the mortician walked in with an amicable smile on his face and a large pizza in his arms. Bella declined the invitation to stay, eating where corpses use to hang out sounds really wrong, and leashed Barkley, who did want to stay thanks to the smell of the pizza. She was still musing the contents of the fridge when she got in her car and shot off in the direction of the supermarket.

The Gilbert house was full of people and action. The girl trio Bella had come to associate with Elena was camped out in the den, Stefan and Matt with them, watching a movie while Jeremy was in the kitchen going through cupboards.

"Hey"

Bella's greeting was largely ignored, save a raised hand from the blond girl, Caroline, and Matt shushing her when he passed her on the way to the movie. Bella barely refrained from rolling her eyes. It was Magic Mike, for crying out loud, not a complex murder mystery.

Dumping both her shopping bags and purse on the kitchen table she unleashed Barkley who let an excited bark and rushed to the den to be adored by the crowd.

Bella took a long look around the messy kitchen, grabbed another bag of Doritos and a small bottled coke and followed along. She preferred 'Full Frontal' but 'Magic Mike' wasn't bad either.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The next morning Bella emerged in the Gilbert kitchen and had to duck down to avoid being hit with the cereal box. Elena and Jeremy were standing on opposite sides of the breakfast nook arguing hotly, each armed with something. Elena had the box of cheerios, Jeremy had grabbed hold of the milk. Each time the other said something they didn't agree with, a splash of milk or a handful of cheerios were sprayed around.

"Guys? Knock it off!"

Bella's voice was lost in the noise.

"Jeremy, I said 'can it'."  
"Lena, butt out."  
"You're selling drugs."  
"You're screwing everyone with a pulse."  
"What? Jeremy, leave. my. aff-"

This was going nowhere. Bella put her fingers in her mouth and whistled, cop style. Much like the drunks her father used the whistle against, the Gilbert siblings shut up and twirled around to face her. Elena looked murderous; Jeremy looked ready to hit someone.

"Anyone care to let me in on it?"  
"No."

Elena was resolute. Jeremy rolled his eyes

"Tough."

Bella regarded them both.

"One of you is going to tell me what's going on. The other is going to clean up the kitchen. Up to you to decide who does what."

The silence lasted for exactly half a minute before Jeremy broke.

"Elena found out I was doing and selling drugs. I found out she's slept with half the guys at school."

"Only two."

Elena butted in. Jeremy rolled his eyes

"Plus how many?"

Elena lunged at him. Bella moved faster than she ever thought possible and separated the siblings.

"That's it? You learned your sister has a sex life and you learned your brother had a side job and... What? Decided to go after the other teeth bared?"

Bella exhaled reining her annoyance.

"Jeremy, is the whole drugs thing over? All aspects of it?"  
"Yes."

Jeremy rolled his eyes again

"Elena, I don't give a damn who you're sleeping with or how many people you're sleeping with. That, thankfully, is Jenna's domain. Just be safe and that goes for both of you. Other than that... clean this kitchen up. Both of you. Now!"

She reached for her phone just as she slipped the leash on Barkley. She never saw the amused look and quirked lip on Elena's face.

"Hey Jen?"

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

That evening, leaving work Bella found mason, in all his not-yet-wolfy glory, ready to change her flat rear tire.

"Do I want to know how you got the spare out of my locked car?"

Mason simply grinned as he made quick work of putting the flat tire back in the boot of the car and wipe his hands with a mostly dirty rug, also from her car.

"It's the night of the full moon, should you be out and about?"  
"I'll go lock myself up after I accompany you home."  
"Jenna's orders?"

Bella grinned, mason blushed

"For two people so in tune to each other, it's definitely funny to see you side step it all."

Bella's smile widened and she winked before ducking into her creamy blue Mini.

"Come on Fido, I'll feed you before your lock down."

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

It turned out having mason with them at dinner wasn't a bad idea at all. The Gilbert house was chock full of teenagers, were they so clingy when she was a teenager?, spread out throughout it. Jeremy and Matt and a couple another guys were in Jeremy's room playing a game on the TV. In the kitchen a pair of hungry teenage hyenas were tearing into a large bowl of a shredded green salad. Last, Elena was sitting on a guy's lap, basically eating his face off.

Mason turned to look at Bella with his brows raised. Bella shook her head. Mason grinned and nodded. Bella mouthed 'no'. Mason's grin widened. Bella sighed, vowing to make Jenna pay when she came back. Then she said loudly

"Let the guy breath Elena. Explaining how he died to the cops will be a challenge otherwise."

It was highly amusing to watch the guy jump as if he'd been burned and practically toss Elena to the floor in his haste. Stefan's entire bottom half face was shaded in Elena's lipstick. Elena herself glared.

"God you're a party pooper."  
"That is my goal in life."

Bella shot back. Mason realized this could get ugly; his body had begun the early stages of the change, so he quickly moved upstairs to start kicking people out. He must have done something right because Jeremy's friends filed out the door soon after. Matt rounded Caroline on his way out while Bonnie and Jeremy made googoo eyes at each other for a bit. Elena kept glaring.

"Stefan is.."  
"Going to call when he gets home to say he made it and he's safe? That's so nice of you Stefan. It's dangerous world out there"

Bella drawled and stared at Stefan till he got the hint and left after bidding everyone goodbye.

"You're such a bitch"

Mason and Bella looked at each other.

"This overly entitled teenager hates you."  
"I must be doing something right."

Elena stomped upstairs much to Bella's amusement. Mason chuckled and after running a circle around the house he bolted off to his family's old basement out in the woods where the original house once stood.

He never noticed the two birds watching him from the tall willow tree he'd climbed so many times in his teenage years

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello guys and gals, I must admit I'm feeling so much better and I really wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and see you next time!


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"Damon, I'm bored. Can we go home yet?"  
"What's wrong little brother? I thought you enjoyed creeping on your girlfriend"

Stefan glared at his older brother. Well, as much as a small white pigeon could glare anyway. Damon burst laughing at the expression.

"What? I know you've been perched right here on this very branch pretty much every night since you met Elena. I bet there are even little tiny spots to prove it."

Stefan debated between answering the black raven or not. While he had in fact spent the past few days decked in all his feathery glory using up the entire preserves of his meals to finish the transformation, he had never done what Damon was insinuating. For one thing, birds lack the necessary equipment!

"I may be primed to keep an eye on Elena but your branch is looking right into Bella's room. Wanna keep an eye on her big brother?"

Stefan's try to leer was all kinds of awkward but it must have worked because Damon's silky black feathers shook as he sputtered. Before the older brother could retort, music began blaring from Jeremy's room. Elena popped a pair of earbuds in her dainty ears muttering about choices. Bella, in contrast, took the napping dog by the front paws and began dancing with it.

"At least there's a free show."

Damon's leer was far better than Stefan's, both brothers watching as Bella began taking off her clothes, not missing a beat of the music, and tossed them frisby style to the small dog. To both brothers' dismay she went to an adjoining room to shower, so they both turned their attention to Elena who was also stripping, only her try looked alot more like a pro at her place of employment.

Neither bird noticed the teenage boy in the middle room taking out his drawing kit and beginning to put the birds' on paper.

Damon's eyes ignored his brother's girl as Bella emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a peach colored towel, wet hair hanging down on her shoulders and his breath was taken away. And then returned with a woosh as she spoke with some guy on the phone

'Figures she'll have a boyfriend'

He thought, careful not to broadcast the thought to Stefan. While proud that his little brother had finally begun dropping his balls, he didn't want all his thoughts being public knowledge. Especially about the girl that had doused him with vervain laced water and outwitted him in one go. Right after her looks stopped him from killing her and his compulsion on her hadn't worked. Just how much was a guy expected to handle?

"For the umpteenth time, I'm fine Edward. I truly am"

Despite their enhanced vampire hearing, neither Damon nor Stefan were able to listen what this Edward fellow said. They both did see Bella rolling her eyes however

"Well then, tell Esme not to worry either... uhhuh... 'She loves me like a daughter'... right... you both do realize your adoptive mother isn't my mother, right? I have one already!"

Bella snapped and Stefan was impressed with the little growl that came out from low in her throat

"Listen Edward, I'm dripping wet and I do need to get off the phone now. I'm fine. I'm in one piece and if Alice was so worried, why did she and you both wait over a week before calling to see if my bridge attack had harmed me?"

The brunette slapped the phone closed and threw it on her bed, narrowly missing the dog. Then she sat on the windowsill and put her face in her hands.

"Tell me Barky, what did I ever see in him?"

The dog's only response was to shuffle close and lick her foot.

"She's exaggerating"

Stefan commented

"The guy just wanted to make sure she's safe after her run-in with you"

Damon didn't bother to grace his brother with an answer. Instead he turned his attention back at the free show as Bella dressed, braided her hair, went to get a snack from her car and then went to bed.

"That was enlighting"

Stefan mocked.

Before Damon could tell him to go suck a bunny, Bella's phone chirped again, the sound of the classic doorbell striking in the dead of the night. Bella jumped from her bed, grabbed the phone and brought it to her ear.

Then her eyes went glassy, her posture slacked and she breathed a word

"Yes"

Damon and Stefan exchanged a look. What was going on?

Bella stood mechanically, not disturbing the dog that was also wide awake and looking at her. Mechanically she knelt by the bed, picked up a pair of indigo sweats and the matching hoodie and put it on unseeingly. Then she opened the window fully, climbed through it and scaled the house easily like a cat.

'she has cute toes'

Damon thought absently as the lilac painted toes gently brushed against him in her climb.

"What the..."

Stefan breathed as she took off in full vampire speed. The brothers exchanged another look.

"You're faster, go"

Stefan ordered and Damon complied. Even in raven form, he was fast and soon he was flying overhead from Bella who was jumping from roof to roof to tree to roof as casually as if she was skipping. She stopped only when she reached her workplace. There, she scaled down the building, snuck in using the hidden key and went straight down the basement. Damon tried to fly in but the whole 'vampires need permission to enter' stopped him dead in his tracks at the doors of the funeral parlor.

Not three minutes later Bella emerged, her glassy eyes not even seeing him there waiting for her. She closed and locked the door behind her, then ran back to the Gilbert house, package in hands. She stopped to put it in the boot of her car, keeping one item.

"Tell me that's not a blood bag."

Stefan was mystified at the sight of a human girl drink blood as casually as they did. Hell, at the scent of fresh human blood, he got hungry!

"I'm afraid I can't do that little brother"

Damon's deadpan sounded hollow. Bella finished her drink, a healthy 'just fed' flush turning her alabaster skin pink, licked her fangs and lips and tossed the empty bag away. Then she went back to bed and as soon as the glassy look was gone, she was slightly snoring, mumbling about annoying ex-boyfriends in her sleep

"Well, I think we need to re-examine this whole 'human girl looks just like one from our youth' theory we've been tossing around as fact"

Damon tried, and failed, to sneer.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Elena was seething. She had planned a huge party for Stefan's birthday and that... that... blondie had shown up out of the blue and had stolen Stefan's attention from her. He had even hated her party! Who prefers a dingy little place like the Grill and beer and a pool table with that ... peroxided bimbo instead of her party? Elena had invited everyone from their school, people she used to have a million hobbies with. Who cares if Stefan doesn't know all of them or if he doesn't like most of them? His party wasn't about him!

A few seats away from her Caroline could hear her friend's words and wanted to roll her eyes. In fact if she rolled them any harder she'd see her own brain! The blond teenager began wondering what she and Elena had in common to make them friends. She knew she was often overlooked at the stupid typical blond of their little group, and for years she was mostly okay with it, but lately she felt like she wanted, no needed, to break free of her shell. And much like the saying goes ' _if you want to get over someone, best get under someone else_ ', maybe she could do just that; in a friendship sort of way. Caroline Forbes smiled to herself, took hold of her beer (supposedly root beer but the bartender had a tendency to ignore ID's) and went to introduce herself at Stefan's blond friend. At least _she_ wouldn't make blond jokes at Caroline's expense.

Elena seethed more at the clear betrayal. She turned to her other bestie for support in her upcoming war against the local peroxided bimbo, but Bonnie was having fun at the darts board along with some other girls from their school. Some nobodies Elena didn't care about but Bonnie evidently did if she chose them over Elena.

"How is it that I set everything up, yet I'm the one that's left out?"

She asked herself.

On the other side of the Grill Bella was watching Jenna, who had arrived early that morning, and Mason play pool and was laughing to herself. Mason was excellent at the game sinking solid colored ball after solid colored ball. Jenna wasn't. The strawberry blond woman's hand-eye coordination was marginally better than Bella's, and Bella's one and only try at pool had resulted in the green fabric being torn and the ball she was aiming for, flying to the table closest to her. She decided to stick to commenting on the game then.

When Mason only had one ball plus the black eight to go, Jenna changed tactics. She used her feminine wiles to distract her guy friend. A few seductive smiles, a shirt losing a button at just the right moment for the little black ball to go haywire. Judging by Mason's sudden losing streak, it was working. Bella laughed amused, those two were definitely leaving the hangout slash bar slash whatever together.

A commotion at the other end of the bar caught her attention and she looked over to see Elena trying to get Stefan to dance. Stefan however was too busy talking and laughing with some girl. Then Elena tried to get Matt to join her on the dance floor but the guy was working. In the end, Elena walked out of the Grill by herself. Stefan made zero moves to go after her.

"This is not going to end well"

Bella muttered to herself.

"I never pegged my brother as a ladies' man."

A deep voice spoke next to her ear and Bella nearly jumped. At some point Damon Salvatore had slipped onto the barstool next to her and was grinning like the cat that had her canary meal slow cooked in cream.

Blergh

How had she missed him? She wasn't actively looking for him but still, how does one miss someone sitting next to them?

"Damon"

She greeted.

"Bella"

He drawled, smirk in place, icy blue eyes dead set on her.

Damon was thinking as he took her in. Knowing a vamp when he was human who was still a vamp wasn't unusual. Knowing a vamp when he was human who was doing a stellar job acting and passing for a human however, was. Feeling his stare Bella fidgeted.

"You're creeping me out. What do you want?"

Her flat tone was accompanied by the slight rising of her brows. He ignored her and waved to the bartender.

"Jack on rocks and one more of whatever she's having"

He sideyed the pinkish drink.

"What is that thing anyway?"

Bella gave him a smirk of her own

"Pink lemonade. Spiked"

She gave him the flash of a wink and was gone.

"I've been Damon'ed"

Damon muttered in an appreciative tone.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

There was a ripple in the air.

The supernatural beings in the establishment stood straighter looking at one another.

A series of bangs were heard.

Mason's nostrils flared as he pushed Jenna behind him roughly.

Damon put his drink down and began looking for Stefan as the too sweet scent of vampire blood permitted the air.

Bella, who had just exited the Grill, screamed at the sight.

Stefan was kneeling on the ground, his blond friend in his arms, blood pouring out of her.

Cops were around them forcibly separating the two.

A baby faced cop pushed a wooden object roughly into the girl's stomach.

Stefan was frozen in place, watching this nobody stake Lexi.

Sheriff Forbes was guiding the staked vampire girl and the cops keeping her upright to the back of a squad car.

Stefan's lips were pulled back, fangs emerging and he made a move to throw the humans out of his way and save Lexi. There was still time to nurse her back.

Bella crossed the distance between them and stopped him in his tracks, one hand against his shoulder.

"You don't need that kind of attention, Stefan. Be smart."

Damon and Mason jogged to them. For the first time in over a hundred years, Damon comforted Stefan who was weeping, as Mason and Bella looked the situation around them.

"Where's Jenna?"  
"Inside with Jeremy. I don't want her in the crossfire of those overzealous cops"

Across the parking lot, under a sole light, Elena looked at the scene, a cruel smile on her face, fingers playing with the locket around her slender neck.

"I don't share, bitch"

Whether she was looking at the departing police car or at Damon however, was unclear.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Despite the drama of Stefan's party, the next few days went by smoothly… or as smoothly as they could with the town elders thinking they had captured and disposed off of their vampire. Parties were held, restrictions and enforced curfews were lifted. The teenagers were all ecstatic. With the exception of Stefan dumping Elena in his need to mourn his friend. A friend he knew all too well wasn't the murderous vampire that had killed so many people lately, but no one was listening.

Needless to say things were not happy at the Gilbert house and both Jenna and Jeremy had been camping out at Bella's. A lot.

"Jesus, aunt Bella. If only you could hear her going on and on about how Stefan should stop caring about his dead friend and focus on Elena! It's as if she's never lost anyone!"

Jeremy exclaimed, fingers absently stroking Barkley's silky fur.

"Aunt Bella?"

Bella raised a brow as she sliced onions for dinner. Jeremy had began calling her "aunt" ever since she shouted at him and Elena when they arguing in the kitchen during Jenna's last overnight trip.

Jeremy shrugged and Jenna snorted as she uncorked a bottle of wine.

"Didn't you know? By moving out here with me, you inherited a pair of teenage nephew and niece package."  
"Fuck you."

Bella shot back at her friend. Jeremy laughed at them both and went back to petting the dog.

"Did I remember to thank you for having us?"

Jenna changed the subject. Elena's actions lately had been rubbing everyone the wrong way but there was something stopping Jenna from sitting down her niece for a lesson in attitude. She just didn't know what it was, but everytime she'd decide it was high time she did it, she'd just not do it. Bella laughed.

"You brought wine and an official petter for the dog, why would I ever turn you away?"  
"Easy there, your horns are showing."

Jenna threw back.

"Have you two thought about taking this on the road? You're really good at it."

Bella laughed harder and pointed him to the sack of potatoes on the other counter.

"Start peeling kiddo. If you wanna eat, you gotta help out"  
"I'm petting the dog!"

Jenna swatted her nephew with the dish towel. No one spoke about Elena throughout the whole meal and the movie they watched afterwards.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

It was a bright day out when Bella arrived early at work. Wanting to kill time, she opted to buy a coffee from a kiosk and was nearly run over by someone. She hit the ground with an oompf and her assailant was... smoking?

The woman screamed under the sunlight. Operating on instinct Bella grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her under a large oak tree. Shielded by the sun, the woman stopped smoking but she kept on crying. She was dressed in what could barely be considered a nightie. Her long straight blond hair were covered in mud and she looked like she'd had been through the wringer.

"Are you alright?"

Bella asked, keeping her voice low. The woman shook her head. Taking her life in her hands, Bella pushed the woman's hair away from her face.

And gasped

"You're Stefan's friend! I saw the cops shoot, stake and then take you away."  
"Don't talk to me about that bastard!"

Stefan's friend growled, fangs extending and her under eye bags becoming full of veins. Bella took a step backwards

"Okay... you need food and I value my life a bit too much to offer a vein. Can you stand? I know somewhere where you can get nourishment and try to look less of a burn victim."  
"Thanks. My name is Lexi."  
"Bella"

Bella grabbed Lexi's hand, and the two broke off with a sprint, towards the funeral parlor. Lexi steamed and burned while Bella worked fast at the locks of the store and quickly yanked Lexi inside after a quick 'come in'.

"Sit here"

She ordered the blonde vampiress before she ran to the basement, retrieved a handful of bloodbags from their recently embalmed customers and returned to the main office.

"Here you go"

She tossed Lexi the bags, who tore one open and emptied it in a single gulp. Then, at a more leisured pace, she drank the second and third ones. She was merely sipping the second to last one, when Bella dared speak again.

"What happened Lexi?"

Lexi, whose skin was slowly healing as she fed, thought back. She remembered being shot and staked but it was under a cloud of fog. Then she had woken up in a strange room, with Stefan, enjoying the morning after of some very naughty and pleasurable activities.

"Only it wasn't Stefan and I was very human. We both were"  
"What do you mean it wasn't Stefan? Humans?"  
"I saw him as Stefan but what he said... his words weren't Stefan's. Does that make any sense to you?"  
"No"

Bella shook her head. But the whole story rang something familiar inside her. She shook her head to clear it because Lexi was still talking.

"I've known Stefan for ages. I met him and later Damon, shortly after they were changed and, I like to believe I know him as best as one person can know another. We've been through a lot together"  
"Okay... and then what happened? How do you go from that to calling him a bastard earlier?"

Lexi's left lip corner curled.

"Because it wasn't him in bed with me"

Her voice was soft. Bella bit back a smile of her own. Was there something in the water in this town that it turned lifelong friends to lovers?

"Who was it?"

"Some guy. Something nagged at me and when he left our room to get breakfast I decided to get some sun on. It's been so long since I last felt sunshine without burning like an overdone chip."

Lexi's voice was wistful

"Then I did... as soon as sun hit my skin, I began burning and with each moment the sun burned me, the more the lie I was being fed began losing its effect."  
"Pain brought you out of deep dazzling? Wait, can one vampire dazzle another?"

Lexi shook her head.

"He looked more a bedazzled 90s partier than a vampire. Dude sparkled under the sun! He ran out to get me back inside and I saw him for who he was. Not Stefan. Some dude I have never seen. He kept talking to me, trying to get me back under his power but... the pain was too strong."

Bella nodded but her ears kept replaying Lexi's words

"Dude sparkled under the sun"

Lexi had been captured by a cold one. Good thing she had mentioned them to this founder's council.

"If you wouldn't mind my help, why don't I call a girlfriend of mine to bring you some clothes? Also, call Stefan. The guy's been a wreck since you were killed."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

After much debate, Lexi had agreed to call Stefan but she wasn't sure if she wanted to stay with him. Or even see him. Bella made her promise not to eat her dog and then invited her to stay with them at her place.

"I have 0 interest in eating an animal. I prefer my blood coming from humans."  
"Preferably alive ones?"  
"Ideally, but I've gotten myself used to blood bags. People already donate them so it's a win-win really. You may want to keep that doggie of yours away from Stefan though. He doesn't handle human blood well so he's on an animal diet"

Lexi mumbled remembering all the times she had found Stefan in a ripper state and had to bully, push and nurse him back into a less dangerous diet. She hated that animal blood kept him weaker than most vampires, but he just couldn't handle human blood. Eating animals was his idea, but she still felt like a bitch for forcing him to go back to it each time he strayed.

Funny thing was that she had come up with an idea to mix both human and animal blood for a while and ease him into the rush of human blood. It was going to be her gift to his birthday.

Bella filed that bit of information away for future use. She supposed she should be more surprised that Jenna's niece was sleeping with a vampire while her nephew was dating a witch, but at this point, the entire town seemed like a supernatural central. She wondered if mermaids and fairies were also around, hiding in plain sight.

Jenna wasn't all that surprised either. She did tell the vampiress not to eat any of her friends but when Lexi assured her she was going to keep her fangs to herself, the three women became quite friendly.

"What's this?"

Lexi asked seeing the curling iron and makeup bag inside the large shopping bag of clothes Jenna brought.

"You may be supernaturally gorgeous already, but you're going to see the guy who just about blew his "I'm human" cover to not let sheriff clueless take you away and whom your abductor impersonated after days of you being dead without your game face on? Vampires must have a lot more self confidence than I do!"

Jenna responded with a wicked smile. Lexi grinned back at her, snatching the bag.

"There is a shower head attached at the tables downstairs. It's meant for dead people but you're not exactly alive either."

Bella winked, getting in the mood. Lexi rolled her eyes at them

"Vampires aren't entirely dead you know. We have a seriously slow heartbeat, otherwise digesting and/or expelling all the food and drinks we consume would be disgusting"

Bella agreed silently. She had caught the Cullens 'expel' human food once. Mass vomiting wasn't pretty. It was amusing though! Unfortunately any attempt she made to watch the exorcist after that, turned the movie from a horror one to comedy.

"I should feel bad about Elena, shouldn't I?"

Jenna asked quietly after Lexi disappeared. Bella considered it. Technically Jenna should feel bad about her heartbroken niece. Especially since Lexi's return ensured Stefan would calm his tits about her death, but Bella highly doubted he and Elena would get back together.

Looking at Jenna, she shrugged one shoulder. She didn't know what to say. Jenna frowned, having reached the same conclusion, sighed and changed the subject.

"What do you think about ordering in tonight? Might be nice to keep an eye on the newly dead chick and the less newly dead dude under your roof."

"You matchmaker, you"

By the time Bella's first client of the day showed up, an elderly lady wanting to decide her last lodgings, Lexi had been washed and cleaned, primed and clothed in Jenna's clothing and looked ready to tackle the day.

Minus the bright sun shining outside. Jenna however came equipped with

"A beach umbrella?"

Bella asked astonished.

"Yes, large enough to cover about 3 people at the beach, should do wonders for just the one"

Lexi looked gobsmacked but was willing to try it out. With the lace of the top Jenna gave her and the light fabric of her pants, there wasn't much of her to be in danger of the sun. Bella tossed her the keys

"Have fun you two"

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

After the sun went down, Jenna and Lexi were strolling along the town. Lexi found herself liking the human woman, enough to share about her life. Jenna had been fascinated to hear about the woes of women in the 1680s and the events that led to Lexi's turn.

"Let's just say that life as a vampire isn't the best thing ever but it is what you make it"

Lexi finished with an enigmatic smile. Jenna returned it, thinking of Mason. His outlook on his werewolf existence after he accidentally killed someone was very similar.

"You know, once we get this mess with Stefan settled, I'd like you to meet my b... friend. My friend. If you look past the whole vampires vs werewolves thing, I think you two could end up being good friends"

Lexi was about to reply, when her nostrils flared. A familiar, very familiar, scent enveloped her senses. Her body stiffened, torn between staying and running. Jenna put a hand on her new friend's arm and smiled.

"Lemme guess. It's show time?"

Lexi stammered something but then two figures emerged from the other side of the park. The Salvatore brothers. Damon looked exasperated as he all but pushed the moving wreck known as Stefan, forward. Stefan for his part walked numbed, his eyes not focusing, and his lips stained with his last meal.

"What happened to him?"

Lexi asked, her voice shaking.

"He saw you get killed. Why are you alive again?"

Damon semi-drawled, semi-sneered, semi-legitimately questioned. Lexi was about to give him the condensed version of events before she remembered she didn't like Damon. She threw him a shrewd look instead. Jenna looked from vampire to vampire, thinking for the first time that hanging out in a dark-ish part with three vampires may not be the best thing for her overall health.

"Lex?"

Stefan's eyes focused on the blond in the vicinity. Before Lexi could nod, the loud barking of a tiny dog alerted everyone to the new arrival.

"So this is where vampires anonymous meet. And here I thought it was down the Grill"

Jenna grinned at Bella. Damon's lips curled to a smirk. Stefan and Lexi kept on looking at each other. Stefan looked as if someone had given him a new leash on life. Lexi was blushing.

"Oh just kiss already!"

Damon gave his brother a shove. Jenna pulled the howling dog back towards her but the barking soundtrack didn't stop the vampires from hugging.

"You might wanna stay at my place tonight"

Jenna grinned, foreseeing exactly where the kiss they were witnessing would end.


	23. Author's Note

**Hello everyone.**

So sorry to tease an update when there's none but I've got some news. Back in March I had a nasty fall and broke my arm. There was an operation and all seemed to be going well but I was told that there's some issues with it and I'm gonna need some more surgery

YAY!

Not!

I'm having that tomorrow so updates are gonna have to take a backseat for a bit. I have the story all mapped out but typing one handed isn't really my forte. I promise to finish the story however, and answers are coming. Feel free to drop me a line and I _think_ I'll have an update for you next weekend, (but don't quote me on that :-\\).

xoxo

T1gerCat


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N:** Hello everyone. I got some good news! My arm is getting better and so I was able to sit down, get settled and write! I hope things stay that way, too!

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 23

"Stefan and Lexi... sitting on a tree... I think I'm gonna be sick!"

Damon sang off key under his breath and fluttered around on the branch to find a more comfortable position. His claws were cramping and he had never been more bored.

He had decided on stalking Bella once more, but with Stefan being busy with Lexi, what the hell was *that* about?, the task was all up to him. Not that he minded but tonight the vampire/human weirdo was busy spending the evening with the wolf and his mate.

Wasn't that a strange friendship? A wolf having a mate with a vamp for a friend. A vamp that acted human. A vamp that casually sold out the sparklies at the town council?

Damon raised a wing to rub at his little forehead. He was giving himself a headache. Could ravens even take an aspirin? He doubted anyone would believe he accidentally killed himself by taking an aspirin while in bird form.

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

The wolf, the vamp and the human were fooling around in the living room and Damon was bored to tears. Until the vamp headed for the kitchen. Bella reached the freezer door and took out the most delectable chocolate log Damon had ever seen.

"Now we're talking"

He breathed and flew closer to the window ledge. He had a thing for chocolate even as a human and it had only gotten worse when he turned. Bella ignored the birdie completely, cut the log into thick slices, served it in three plates.

"Hey, not fair!"

And then put ice cream next to it. On one plate, her own Damon guessed, she swapped the caramel sauce she put on the other two for a thicker cream and Damon's eyes bugged out as he breathed in

"Blood. She's pouring blood on the treat. Now that's my kind of a woman"

Damon forgot all about manners as he flew from the kitchen windows to the den ones and shamelessly drooled. He only flew away when he caught the wolf's eyes and the wolf was laughing. At. Him

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

The day dawned grey, the air heavy with moisture. Jenna was at the kitchen table, a sheet of paper in front of her, studying it intently.

"You look ready to take exams, aunt Jenna"

Jeremy joked, stuffing his face.

"Speak with your mouth closed, kid or I'll lose my breakfast"

Bella told him from her own seat across the table, her manner of eating a lot more civilized.

"Where is your sister?"

Jeremy shrugged. He had no clue and didn't quite care to get one. He chewed on his last potato pancake, eyeing the soft leather pouch next to his plate. It was funny how a pinch of some dried herb was clearing his head. He'd been wearing the pouch for a while now and, for the first time since he'd start using drugs, he'd been able to remember his dreams. Dreams filled with his family, of memories from trips, visits to the park, days when he'd visit his dad to the practice to play his nurse.

"Dad was supposed to be there today."

He said softly, the wetness in his eyes betraying just how young he really was. Bella gently touched his hands

"You're right, your dad was supposed to go to career day, but he's not here anymore. Jenna's not so bad, is she? Besides, would your dad agree to wear dominatrix incognito makeup?"

The joke worked in lifting up the teenager's mood but it also resulted in Jenna throwing a piece if bacon at her. Bella shrieked and then laughed as she let Barkley eat Jenna's bacon

"Hey!"

"You throw it, the dog eats it"

Jenna, realizing Jeremy had eaten her own pancakes after finishing his, and she had just tossed her bacon to the loud-as-fuck furball, put down her notes for career day and, following tradition, grabbed Elena's breakfast plate.

"Where is Elena anyway?"

She echoed Bella's earlier question. This time it was Bella who shrugged as Jeremy was once again lost in thought.

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

Career day went well. Jenna had been mobbed with one useless question after another. She was walking alongside Liz Forbes in search of an aspirin.

"If one more person asks why TV cops are glammed up and wearing heels and yet I look like a frumpy mom, I'll practice my shooting on them!"

Jenna laughed at the older woman's expression.

"I was asked whether we get it on with the pilots or first class passengers"

Liz's expression turned from outrage to shock

"Seriously? Remind me to text Zach if there's a herb for teenage horniness too"

Liz semi-joked. Jjenna nodded, still mostly amused.

"You've got to admit though, today has been a career day for the books. You with flights, me with police, Logan and the press, Mason and his pro-surfing instead of Richard."

"No medicine either. Jeremy was reminiscing about it this morning"

"I meant to ask, how are the kids coping?"

"One day they're better than good, the next Jeremy's a bubbling mess"

"And Elena?"

Liz probed when it was clear than Jenna finished

"I don't think she cares. She was devastated when I first told them but..."

The strawberry blond shared quietly. Truth be told, she had mentally began excluding the eldest Gilbert from her worry. It felt as if Elena used the Gilbert house as a bed and breakfast, detached from her family.

Neither of the two women noticed Logan Fell standing in the shadows promising Caroline Forbes to show her the TV station recording room that night.

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -**_

Jenna, Mason and Bella were sitting on the floor playing cards when Mason's phone rang. He signaled the girls to wait as he reached in his butt pocket to retrieve it.

"Hello?"

Jenna put her cards face down and leaned backwards against the sofa, Mason was worse than any woman when it came to gossiping. He could talk for hours on the phone! Bella grinned at Jenna's dismayed expression and mimicked her friend, opting to take a long sip of her raspberry flavored soda water.

"Oh hey Liz. What's up?"

"Lil' Stefan"

Jenna quipped, remembering the hickey on the vampire's neck that morning during her career day speech. Bella snorted. Mason smiled at the women but his smile fell when Liz went on.

"What? When? Is she alright?"

Bella and Jenna exchanged a look alarmed

"Jen, wasn't your creepy high school-ex-turned-reporter called Logan?"

Bella asked quietly. Jenna nodded

"Why?"

Mason's baritone voice covered Bella's

"The teacher? Err, okay. I guess I can. I'll be right there."

He pressed the button to turn the phone off and reached for his beer.

"Logan's dead. He kidnapped Caroline, ran into Saltzman who apparently is a vampire hunter on his off hours, who helped Logan to slip and land on a stake"

Jenna blinked, her eyes big as saucers

"Logan's a vampire. Alaric is a vampire hunter? Why are all the guys I have crushes on turn out to be weird?"

Mason glared at his girlfriend. Bella, seemingly unfazed, quipped

"And I'm supposed to be the danger magnet!"


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 24

Things seemed to calm down after Logan's death. All the vampire related deaths ceased (and were pinned on the dead journalist) but the town water remained laced with vervain as a precaution. The town council continued to meet weekly only this time the main topic was the upcoming comet's passing and it being the beginning of the Founding of the town celebration.

"If I go to one more of these meetings I'm gonna ask Lexi to kill me"

Jenna moaned when she and Bella met for a drink after said meeting. Jenna had taken her role seriously but the sheer stupidity of those meetings and the difference between "powder white" and 'sugar white" was enough to do her in.

"Why not dupe it yourself?"

Bella needled combining Jenna's love for all things DIY and the fact Jenna had said the exact same thing after the last three meetings. And yet she kept on attending them.

"I'm not suicidal!"

Jenna laughed scrunching her face.

"Of course not..."

The two friends were still laughing when the resident vampire trio joined them.

"I thought I heard two hyenas all the way outside."

Damon sneered sticking his head between theirs. Bella and Jenna rolled their eyes in unison. Lexi pulled the raven haired vampire back by the hair before putting a stool in his place and sitting down atop it.

"Why don't you make yourself Damon and get us drinks?"

Stefan rolled his eyes at his big brother. Then, as soon as Damon grumbled about not being a servant and headed towards the bar, Stefan's gaze turned worried.

"Something wrong?"

Jenna asked, noticing. Lexi and Stefan exchanged a look and then Stefan leaned in Jenna's ear and his voice was barely audible when he whispered.

"Our lover and maker was raided alongside with all the rogue vamps in 1864 and imprisoned in a ...tomb of sorts. Legend has it the entrance will be allowed to be opened on this comet's passing. Damon's been a bit... of a bigger asshole lately."

Stefan shared while omitting that a big reason for Damon's mood was Bella and what the hell was going on with her and, to a lesser extend, Elena and her shift of romantic focus to him after Stefan had broken up with her and had started a relationship with Lexi.

"' _Our_ ' lover?"

Bella questioned with her eyebrows raised and her head resting in the palm of her left hand.

"Long story."

Stefan's blush was brighter than Bella's. Lexi leaned across the table to kiss her boyfriend.

"Where's your wolf?"

Stefan asked when Lexi's lips were separated from his.

"Had to head out to see some friends of his for a few days"  
"And with the doggies away, the thieves shall play"

Jenna groaned at the bad pun and asked while Damon deposited beers and his own scotch on the round table.

"What do we have to do to shut him up?"  
"Feed me."

Damon's grin was ever present.

"Okay."

Everyone turned to look at Bella who motioned Damon close with her fingers and a coy smile, and then stuck a piece of cucumber from the platter between Damon's teeth, before chunking him on his chin with a smile that would melt ice.

"Good boy!"

Stefan choked on his beer. Lexi snorted grape juice out her nostrils. Jenna laughed loudly.

"Come on Bell, dance with me"  
"Was she always like this?"

Lexi asked as soon as the human and the acting-human were on the dance floor.

"Yes"  
"No"

Stefan and Damon said at the same time

"She was blending in the background, letting Katherine steal the spotlight"  
"She was the one to talk to when things got too serious"  
"Father liked her more than he did Katherine"  
"Katherine hated that"

Stefan laughed. Much like Damon he had been enamored by Katherine but, seeing Lexi dead had worked in snapping him off it. Deep down he believed Damon was close to snapping off it too but his brother was too pigheaded to realize it himself.

"Funny how I've known you ever since you were a newborn practically but you never mentioned the wallflower."

Lexi interlaced her fingers with Stefan's but it was Damon who answered.

"You know I have no idea what did happen that night. I remember a few bits and pieces and Katherine, and us change but..."  
"Last time I saw her was when I got home. She was playing maid for father and doctor Gilbert. She cornered me in the kitchen, at first wanting to know why father kept insisting we were dead. And then she looked into my eyes... and... knew."  
"You didn't mention that."

Damon told his brother. Stefan's chuckle was sad. He closed his eyes and remembered.

"She told me to run and hide and only come back when I can claim to be my own descendant. And to stay out of the sun."  
"That's what we've been doing all along, only I thought it was your idea saint Stefan."

Damon mock accused his brother. He didn't do feelings but he did love Stefan. In his own unique way.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

Meanwhile at the Gilbert house Jeremy had been sitting in the attic, going over his family's papers for the founder's celebration. He had promised to see what he could find and lend it to the committee.

Finding journals that were nearly decrepit and unreadable he set them aside, hoping Jenna would know if they were the right things.

Then he dove once again in what he jokingly called 'The Narnia trunk'.

He found a ton paperwork relating to his parents' schooling. Their school yearbooks and similar crap from their university days. Their wedding album. His grandparents' photo albums. His own baby album, Jenna's even. Something nagged at him.

"Where's Elena's?"

He asked the cobwebs around him. Frowning he took hold of everything he found to lug it downstairs. He stood at the top landing of the staircase. A hand appeared out of nowhere and shoved him down the stairs head first. Jeremy heard a voice mocking him

"Little boys should not seek what is not theirs to find"

Right before he succumbed to darkness.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 25

"Oh my god, Jeremy!"

Jenna screamed as she entered the house. She had been out on the town for the evening since she'd fly out the next day and had nearly forgotten to come home, as Renee would say.

When she did, she found Jeremy sprawled on the base of the stairs, blood pouring from a cut on his forehead, half of him turned the wrong way.

"Jeremy?"

She whispered as she rushed to him, feebly feeling for a pulse. There was none. Remembering the first aid classes she took in order to get hired at the airline, she pushed Jeremy's prone form on his back, tilted his head to clear his airway and began CPR

Behind her footsteps were heard, then a thud and Bella's voice asking for an ambulance.

"High school game has them all. Might be faster if we drove him there."

Bella's voice was artificially smooth, trying to calm her friend.

"Call Mason, tell him to meet us there. Then help me put Jer in his dad's car, it's bigger than mine. Go Jenna, NOW!"

She instructed when Jenna remained frozen in place and took over the CPR. Both women did their best to ignore the pool of blood they were kneeling in.

When Bella felt Jeremy's heartbeat start again, she stopped and looked around him ignoring how thirsty she suddenly felt. She'd be able to get a drink at the hospital. What had happened to him?

Where was Elena? It was 4 am, was the teenager out so late? Something shiny under Jeremy's leg attracted her attention and she put it in her jeans' pocket without thinking.

"Is he awake?"  
"Not yet, come on."

Each wrapping an arm around Jeremy's waist, they half pulled, half carried, and mostly dragged him out to the car. Jenna got in the back with him keeping an eye in case it got worse. Bella paused a moment before getting in the driver's seat looking up at the second story windows. She'd swear she saw movement in one of the windows

"Bella, come on!"

The drive to the hospital felt like it was done in seconds and it wasn't long before they were pulling in front of the hospital and a pair of people in scrubs unloaded Jeremy onto a stretcher and carried him inside, Jenna fell in mason's arms sobbing and Bella leaned against the car to breath.

Something bumped in her pocket. A ring was there. It was a fugly thing done in gold and with a black stone in the middle and a gold engraving of something that looked like a child's depiction of a bird on it.

An image flashed in her mind and she gasped. As if on autopilot she walked inside the hospital, grabbed the hand of lady doctor to ask how Jeremy was.

"Are you family?"  
"His aunt is my best friend."  
"I can't divulge information on strangers, ma'am."

The doctor replied with a smirk, running a hand through her curly hair. Bella grabbed the hand, squeezed it and pulled the woman up to her own level

"Get this ring, put it on his finger, and let him die."

She instructed her voice a heavy monotone, brown eyes meeting green. The doctor lady winced but nodded as if in a trance.

"Go, doctor Fell."

Bella sneered after sparing a glance at the woman's nametag. Getting a headache, she rubbed the spot in the middle of her forehead

"How is he?"

Mason asked as he and Jenna reached her. Bella shrugged

"Wouldn't tell me. I'm not family."

Mason rolled his eyes, as Jenna's tightened and she stalked off in search of her dying nephew.

 _ **\- - - Memories of a Past and a Present - - -**_

Hours passed before they had some news. The news were dual. First Jeremy died of his injuries; the no-longer-smirking-doctor apologized. And then he came back to life. Some kind of clerical error or machine error, apparently. This time the doctor was lethargic, nearly robotic in her manner. Over Jenna's cries of happiness Bella and Mason exchanged a look. Bella's lips quirked, Mason gave her a slight nod.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Present - - -_**

Jeremy downright refused to stay at the hospital longer than he absolutely had to. Doctor Fell fought to keep him, Jenna supported her nephew and in the end, Jeremy's last name along with the fact he was 100 healthy and he was discharged.

... Well, it helped that Mason basically growled at the doctor too.

On the drive home, Jeremy shared how he got down the stairs, what he found in the attic, his definite will to stay at Bella's place along with Jenna and how he had the sudden urge to

"Attend a party?"

Jenna was dumbfounded

"Kiddo, I know people that nearly die may be a tad different afterwards but... you hate parties!"

"Come on aunt Jenna. A party of all of us recreating an 1864 ball, might be fun."

"1864 ball?"

Bella questioned from her place at the passenger seat. Mason rolled his eyes as he explained that part of the founder's celebration was a parade in the theme of the founding year and a party at the end of the day that had a crowning of miss mystic falls as the crowning moment of the festivities.

"Naturally the title goes to a founding family descendant"

Jenna finished. Bella raised a brow turning in her seat to face her friend

"Sour grapes, Jen?"

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Present - - -_**

It was late when Bella found Jeremy sitting on the windowsill, a cigarette in his mouth.

"I thought you quit."

"I did. It's a normal one. Wanna?"

Bella shook her head and watched as Jeremy put it back in his mouth and took a drag. She leaned against the wall herself and waited the teenager out. He'd crack soon.

And crack, he did.

"Elena isn't my sister."

He breathed. Bella nodded

"She's adopted. Jenna told me."

"No, I mean... she's not related to us."

"That's what I said, kid."

Jeremy groaned and licked his lips.

"Go through the albums in my bag. You'll understand what I mean."


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 26

"Carol has outdone herself this year."

Richard Lockwood was puffed up like a rooster praising his wife, and by extend, himself.

"You'd think Carol is his child, the way he keeps acting."

Jenna whispered. Lexi snorted and pulled the strings of Jenna's corset tighter.

"Lexi, you might want to loosen it up a bit. Us humans do have that pesky need to breath."

Jenna wheezed.

"Sorry."

Lexi winced and let it out some before tying the ends together. Then she reached for the dress to help her brand new human friend into. Then she tightened that up and stood back to admire. The forest green dress was the perfect shade to make Jenna's unique blond-red hair light up.

"You look gorgeous."  
"Not nearly as amazing as you! You look so comfortable in that thing, I doubt I'll be able to keep breathing in mine!"  
"Well, I did live in one before. Consider yourself lucky you only have to wear it once a year!"

Lexi needled, her eyes opened wide in mockery, using Jenna's earlier words against her. It worked, Jenna laughed as she finished applying her makeup. Once she looked as if she had stepped through time (much like everyone else), she turned once again to Lexi.

"Where are the others?"  
"Mason and Stefan are getting Jeremy ready at the high school and I have no idea where Bella or your niece are."

If Jenna noticed Lexi sounding a little purposeful in her disclaimer, she didn't point it out.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

In truth Bella had asked Lexi's help in putting her own lavender purple dress hours earlier and had gone to spend the morning in the newspaper archives. Jeremy's findings in the attic had been very interesting so she had taken it upon herself to get dusty while Mason and Stefan would keep an eye on the remaining Gilbert and Lexi would make sure Jenna was kept safe.

"How can anything go wrong with a wolf and a pair of vampires on the job? sounds like a bad joke actually."

She muttered while going from stack of yellowing newspapers to stack, first looking by decade and then yearly, sneezing every time the piles of dust around her moved.

She knew she had to rush in order to not miss Richard's opening speech when her fingers brushed upon the correct stack of newspapers. Sitting down to read them, she found what she was looking for. It was nothing more than two front-page news, spaced five days apart, but it added to what Jeremy had found. Every crazy thing that had happened ever since she and Jenna had set foot in this tiny town finally made sense.

"Shit. Now it all adds up... But... Why?"

Moving as quickly as three layers of clothes plus a girdle would allow her, she made copies of the articles and stuffed them in the chronologically correct pouch hanging from her left wrist, the thin cord that held it close cutting into her skin.

(One of the moms at the meeting about the celebration had dared object at the lack of designer handbags. The woman had not been since.)

Returning the tomes back to their proper place, Bella met the dark glare of the hawk eyed librarian. She gave the woman a polite smile and practically hightailed it.

"With my luck she'd be a werewolf in disguise."

She thought, careful enough to not utter the words aloud, before navigating to the ground floor, her layers of skirts wiping the floors.

She had just stepped outside the library archives, raised her face to the sun for a few dust free breaths, and finally had cell signal once more. With a calming breath she called Damon. She only hoped the vampire had ignored Lockwood's instructions as well and had a cell phone on him, before she called the rest of the Scooby gang.

She had to talk to the volatile, self centered, highly annoying and well rocking the 'tall, dark and handsome' trope vampire before he also put two and two together and went off half cocked.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

Damon stood nearly frozen at the edge of the downtown area. If he hadn't known better he'd believe he was transported back in time. Mystic Falls had never looked more war-time than it did now. Everything looked the same as it did back then. He could almost see his old friends joking as they walked down towards Main street. Damn, he missed those guys.

"I see the Lockwoods are still as anal relentive as their ancestors!"

Damon muttered to himself as he walked, a ghost of his usual snark. He ran his finger inside his collar, feeling close to choking. He never liked wearing that crap even as a human. Human... Back when he was human... Staring off to space, it wasn't difficult to mesh the past and the present in his vision.

The ringing of his cell phone pulled him back to the present. A passerby shot him a dirty look. Damon rolled his eyes at them and made a show of talking to the silver device in his hand.

A short conversation later had him rushing across the town in vampire speed knowing better than to drive.

"Modern cars didn't exist in 1864"

Carol Bitchwood had proclaimed when she had weedled her pussy hubby into banning all modes of modern transportation from the city for the day. The woman was obsessed enough to even hire carriages for the day!

Now there's paying homage and then there is just taking it too far.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

Mason had fully ignored his brother's unwritten law and was on his motorcycle as he rode to the meeting point, Jeremy hanging on for dear life. Lexi and Jenna were close enough to be able to walk, between them all covering all possible paths to the old cemetery. He reached the old padlocked gates as Lexi broke the chains with a snap of her wrist.

"Hey handsome."

Jenna greeted her boyfriend. He really did rock the wartimes look, she thought. Judging by his smirk, he also knew it! Jeremy stumbled off the motorcycle and grabbed on to Lexi's arm to regain his balanced as he considered kissing the ground, much to the vampiress' amusement.

Damon and Bella arrived from different directions then and neared them cutting through the more modern graveyeard.

"What are we doing here?"

Jenna asked no one in particular. Damon kept his mouth shut, this was Bella's show, and he was just as curious.

"There's is something I gave to show you"

Bella took Jenna by the hand and let Jeremy guide them to his family's area of the old and original graveyard. It was quite pleasant, for a graveyard. Well kept, quiet. Tall trees shading were the graves as the company moved past the Salvatore family plot, Damon sparing a look in his own empty grave next to Stefan's, and reached the Gilberts'.

Gently, Bella pulled Jenna to the row behind the plots bearing Miranda's and Greyson's names. A small pile of leaves was covering the name on the small grave hiding there.

"Bella?"  
"Take a look aunt Jenna"

The sight of the grave brought to Jenna a memory. A frantic phone call in the middle of the night. A car accident when Greyson was bringing Miranda and baby Elena home from the hospital.

"No... But..."

She trailed, remembering the past few weeks. Elena was alive, there with them. Wasn't she? Mason put a steady arm around her waist.

"You mean..."  
"Elena is not Elena. And she's not alone."

Bella handed the company the papers from her pouch. Baby Elena wasn't the only casualty of that night.

"Who is Kelly Donovan?"

Lexi read over Jenna's shoulder.

"Miranda's best friend growing up and"  
"Matt's mother"

Mason finished.

"Who's Matt?"

Lexi piped again. This time it was Jeremy who handed her his phone, a photo of the football team from the season's first game on the screen.

"Blond guy in the middle"

Lexi's face drained of color

"But that's..."


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 27

"Fake Stefan."

Damon spoke for the first time, his voice low. During Jenna's reality slap, he'd had one of his own. A long forgotten memory had resurfaced. Katherine arguing with Isabella, the night before her capture. Only... She wasn't actually captured.

* * *

He frowned. His father had dosed Stefan with vervain. Katherine bit into him and fell poisoned. He and a couple more of the town elders stuffed her in the back of a caged carriage, while Stefan and Damon had been locked in Stefan's rooms and proceeded to fight once again. They were let out by Isabella, who looked as if she had gone ten rounds with the wild dogs the Lockwoods kept as pets.

"I do believe I shall regret it, but you two need to have your eyes opened."

She had said cryptically before she allowed them to leave. And leave, they did. He doubted they even thanked her. They ran after the carriage and caught up with it as it reached the Falls. A young man they had never seen before leaped out of it, unlocked the cage and helped Katherine climb off before pressing his lips to hers.

Damon now remembered feeling angry… Protective… Foolish... He ran to them and pulled the man off his Katherine using his army training to incapacitate him as Stefan tended to Katherine.

He hadn't expected the man to have superhuman strength and toss him a bit of distance away. He hadn't expected the freak of nature to sparkle either in the fading sunlight, nor to be as unmovable as a thick wall! Katherine had laughed at Stefan's attempt at the man and a second later Stefan was a heap on the ground near him.

"Toys of yours, my love?"

Katherine grinned

"You know I get bored easily."

The pair laughed. Damon loved Katherine when she was mean spirited, but he barely knew this cruel creature.

"We do not need witnesses."

The man declared and stalked towards them. He leaned over Stefan, gleaming teeth ready to plunge when Damon attacked.

"I don't always like my brother, but he is my brother."

The man let out another cruel laugh as he tossed Damon off with the same easy Damon would push a mosquito away from him.

"That is okay, I can always start with you."

Katherine had made quick work of the horses and had thrown the carriage sideways, before joining her lover. She used her fangs to pierce the skin of her pointer finger and smeared the blood on Damon's lips before doing the same with Stefan.

"Sit still little Stefan."

She compelled him and stood back to watch the show. Stefan's green eyes were wide in fear, Damon could see that clearly. He tried to push the heavy vampire off, but couldn't. Instinctively he licked his lips, tasting the blood.

"Bye bye."

The man laughed. When he spoke again, his voice was smooth as honey, Damon couldn't ignore it.

"You will not know what happened here. Your last memory will be foggy but you will remember this strongly. Katherine is entombed with the rest of the vampires. Do you understand me?"

To his horror Damon heard himself agreeing. The guy laughed and snapped his neck.

* * *

Blinking heavily, Damon returned to the present. Bella was looking at him. No, through him, as if a memory was playing in her own head. There probably was.

Off to the side, Lexi was nodding, sharing about her experience with the fake Stefan. Speaking off

"Where is my brother?"

Mason looked at him.

"I sent him to keep a discreet eye on Not!Elena. My pack is on the way over too."  
"Your pack?"  
"If Bella's scrambled information is right, then we need werewolves to fight our impostors."  
"It is."

Bella's voice was hoarse. Seeing Damon in his old time garb reminded her of the past clearly. The journey her mind had taken to lift off the "I'm 100% human" fog felt almost completed. It had started with her being burned with the only-venomous-for-vampires plant, and ended with the newspaper articles about the birth and death of Elena Gilbert and Matthew Donovan.

No, she thought with a start. It began far earlier. When she was in that dance studio with James, she had fought back. She had literally fought tooth and nail, not that it did much good. When James had bit into her wrist, he had nearly thrown up.

"What are you?"

He had asked. In the pain and haze caused by his venom, she had pushed the whole thing off her mind by deciding it was a dream. Her fingers traced his scar on her wrist, as she remembered catching up to Katherine and her friend only to find Damon and Stefan dead on the ground.

* * *

"What happened?"

She asked, despite seeing the answer. Katherine had retorted something from her endless 'I know best and you annoy me' supply list. Bella said something back, something about needless kills when she was grabbed from behind by Katherine's friend.

"You know, you do begin to annoy me, Isabella. Why can't I just kill her, again?"

He had asked Katherine, who pouted.

"Little Isabella and I used to be the closest of friends once. I thought you would be on my side for ever, that is why I saved you. But now... I don't like you anymore. Do kill her if you want to, Matthew."

Only he didn't kill her. Not truly. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanked her head back. His eyes were always a curious shade of red, the proper for his kind, he had said once, but now they were blacker than the night sky.

"You are a human. Not a vampire, but a useless human. A friendless girl. You will sustain yourself weekly, just enough to not die but you will not remember doing so. You will feed and not be careful enough to protect yourself."

He had kissed her whimpering lips before he hit her forcefully enough to fall in the Falls that gave the town its name. The next few days had been a blur for her, she had a couple fragmented memories of getting out of the lake, stumbling her way back to the Salvatore house, being given a missive and help from one of the servants. Emily was a handmaiden to Isabella and Katherine, but to Bella, as she had taken to calling herself already, she was a stranger.

* * *

Looking back, she remembered being under the watchful eye of a family Emily was close to, posing as a family member, until she became the daughter of Charlie Swan and his already former wife.

"It was all a lie."

She muttered, remembering she hadn't in fact moved in with Charlie when her 'mother' got married. Instead she did when she was caught during one of her trips to the hospital to steal sustenance in Canada, when she was the sister of Simon Swan.

"Bell? You okay?"

Jenna's voice seemed to come from very far away. It pulled Bella back to the present and only when seeing Mason shielding Jenna and Lexi shielding Jeremy did she realize she had her fangs extended and was ready to pounce.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 28

"I'm sorry."

She sneered around fangs as she closed her eyes, worked on her breathing and looked human once more, fangs withdrawn and red haze gone from her eyes.

"Pounding headache."

She rubbed her forehead. Lexi nodded

"Food should help. It did with me anyway."  
"Not it!"

Jenna quipped a second faster than Jeremy causing the group to laugh the tension away.

"I have my 'power juices' in my car. I'll have one later."

She waved the hunger away rolling her eyes at Lexi making air quotes around the words power juice. Okay, in truth that was almost pure human blood mixed with a bit of fruit juice to make it appear different, but in her defense, she didn't know that till now!

"What do we do now?"

Jeremy brought the real reason for their meeting in focus, twisting his family ring around his finger. That monstrosity had saved his life once and no one was looking for a second round of it.

"Katherine always enjoyed having people beg at her feet."

Damon shared moving to stand next to Bella without realizing it. She looked paler than usual, he thought concerned.

"If Not!Matt is posing as a member of the school's football team, he'll walk down the parade with them. We can separate them then."

Jenna opinioned. Mason shook his head.

"Jocks and cheer-chicks parade together."

"I haven't compelled anyone in ages; can you compel Caroline for me?"

Bella asked Damon quietly. He nodded

"Already did once but it was before you had the bright idea to spike the town waters with vervain."

Bella swore under her breath.

"What do you need her to do? She's not a complete airhead but I do think I can convince her, girl-to-girl."

Lexi asked, moving her attention to them.

"Not!Matt's a cold one, right? They sparkle like diamonds under the sun, like he did when he tried to work his dazzling on you, yet I've seen Matt out during daylight with no issue. Why?"

"You think he has some sort of jewelry, similar to yours?"

Bella frowned.

"I don't know. But if he does have one and we expose him on one of the many camera crews Carol has hired for the day, the Volturi are bound to descend.."  
"And even if they're not, Katherine is nothing if not an opportunist. She'll chuck him away like yesterday's news just at the threat."

Damon picked Bella's thought and she nodded.

"First step is to separate them. Our kind isn't exactly difficult to be killed, between us all we can take care of her. But cold ones... The only one I've seen being killed took 3 to take him down and one of them had serious vampire wars experience under his belt."  
"My pack is on the way, Bella."

Mason assured her. Damon rolled his eyes at the wolf

"Think they'll rollover and play fetch too?"

He mock whispered in Bella's ear causing her to bite back a chuckle at the mental image and serve her elbow in his ribs.

"Fifteen wolves vs 1 lousy vampire. Do you really think the sparkly popsicle will be able to walk away from us?"

Bella snorted at the name although Mason's reassurances didn't convince her. Judging by Jenna's worried face, she didn't buy it wither.

"What if we work both angles?"

Jeremy proposed fanning himself. The monkey suit was heavy!

"Elena may have been faked but her reaction to Stefan leaving her for Lexi and then Damon giving her the cold shoulder for you was real. If the two of them go back to being lovesick fools, while we either fake those Volume dudes or expose Matt or something! Point is they'll break up and apart they'll be easier to handle."  
"Kid's got a point."

Lexi nodded but it was Jenna who spoke up

"NO, going off half cocked is dangerous. We either finish it or we pretend along and hope they'll get bored and leave."  
"Cold ones are very strong physically. I wasn't joking when I said their bodies are like granite, I cuddled next to one and I was the one with the bruises! But while they occasionally have gifts, we're smarter than them.""They're the brawn while you guys are the brains?"

Jeremy put it simply. Bella nodded.

"It'd be poetic if we could get him to consume something poisonous, same way Katherine was caught back then."

Damon mused.

"I don't think we can hope he's stupid enough to bite one of us."

Bella pouted.

'She has a really cute pout' Damon thought but Jeremy spoke up.

"Does your blood harm us?"

Lexi shook her head

"It's restorative actually. Unless you die while it's in your system. Why?"  
"Bonnie has seen bite marks on Caroline. If we dose her with enough vampire blood and he takes another bite..."

The teenager trailed. His plan sounded stupid even to him

"Too dangerous. Even if he is capable of biting without giving her his venom no one knows what will happen once his venom and our blood come in contact inside a human being."

Lexi shot him down.

"Actually, we do."

Bella raised her scarred wrist, the teeth shaped scar sparkling faintly under the morning sun..

"In that meeting you said werewolf saliva coated stuff are hurtful to cold ones, right?"

Damon asked her. Bella nodded

"Why not do that? Attack him from afar, pick him up while he's dealing with that, and toss him in a bonfire."  
"Rich and Liz will help covering it up."

Mason agreed.

"Still dangerous, but feasible. Do you think you and Stefan can handle Katherine?"

Mason and Damon began talking plans while the women huddled together doing the same thing.

When Liz called to ask where they were the plans were formulated and ready to put to work.


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 29

It all began simple enough. Lexi and Stefan had a public fight moments before the parade was set to begin.  
Damon made a point of ignoring Bella in favor of making goo-goo eyes at Katherine, who preened like a peacock at the attention.  
Matt and Stefan argued abut who would lead their float, with Matt winning the lead while Stefan stood tall and proud next to Katherine, swallowing his disgust with great difficulty.

By the end of the parade, the seeds had been planted and results were ready to be sowed.

Students caught up with their friends or families except for those involved with the beauty pageant Carol Lockwood had scheduled for that evening.

Katherine was enamored with the idea of being taken for a picnic with the brothers Salvatore. Mason's pack had arrived and were lying in wait, using the natural scents of the Falls to mask their collective 'wet dog stench'.

Damon's idea obviously.

Tyler and Caroline had been convinced by Bonnie and Jeremy to join them for an underage drinking party at the Gilbert house under Jenna's watchful eye and blow off the pre-pageant party, which was in an open area and far more difficult to protect by the natural property law.  
Mason, Lexi, Bella and Liz, who steadfastly refused to sit on the sidelines, began using Matt as target practice with bullets coated in Mason's saliva. Thankfully that began after Damon left, because the vampire was one lewd sneer away from being firewood himself.

Using vampire speed, and Liz riding Mason's wolf self, much to her embarrassment, they forced Matt on the area of the Falls where the wolves were. Mason was right. One 'sparkly popsickle' was in reality no match for a pack of wolves who tore and clawed at him while the vampires and the token human made sure to shoot at him whenever he tried to get away, his screams loud. Before long the bonfire turned purple and the air sickly sweet marking his demise.

"Are you sure your boyfriend was actually trying to help you back then?"

Lexi had asked quietly, wiping sweat of her brow. Mason, back in human form and fully naked, was talking to Liz quietly. The sheriff was making a good show of being okay with it all, but disposing of her first non local vampire was clearly taking a toll on the woman. Bella shook her head not really wanting an answer to a question she had been plagued since that very same day, watching as Stefan and Damon arrived with a squirming Katherine, who screamed obscenities and threats, and firmly deposited her in the fire where she froze still accepting her fate, after Liz yanked the cameo pendant off her neck.

"Please consider this an apology for killing you."

She announced to Lexi before handing her the pendant that would allow her to freely move under the sun. Piling her with sunscreen, makeup and clothing could only work for so long.

"I've been taught to hate your kind but, if it wasn't for you four, that thing would have killed my daughter. And her friends."

Lexi was teary when she thanked the sheriff and allowed Stefan to fasten the necklace around her neck.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

With the smells of burnt sugar and the unique scent of flambé vampire plunging the air, no one saw, smelled or heard the small group of cold ones standing at the top of the Falls.

"Well, there's that!"

The small, blond and lethal leader announced with a smirk.

"Talk about a letdown. After all this and this is how it ends."

A guy that looked like a wrestler complained. The leader hid her smile. It seemed that not even her people had quite heard Alec's command at the softie vampire to stand still, nor her own command of 'pain' at the vampire. His gift had been useful according to the Kings, but no one would overthrow her or her brother from their position as top guards now!

Grey hoods were pulled over sparkly heads and the Guard departed for their private plane, back home to their Italian castle.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

Once the flames died down and the piles of burnt wood were the only proof something had happened, the band of merry beings began heading back. Mason dropped Liz off at the police station and stayed with her as they worked on plausible reasons why two teenagers would suddenly vanish like that. Lexi and Stefan chose to celebrate alone and quickly left Bella and Damon to walk by themselves.

"I'm not going home now!"

Damon groaned causing Bella to laugh.

"Why do you think I live alone?"

Bella's stomach growled and she snorted before making a beeline for her own apartment. Damon followed suit

"Do you have more of that chocolate log?"

He asked as casually as possible.

"Depends, will you leave a ton of feathers on my windowsills again?"  
"Is that what kids are calling it these days?"  
"You tell me."  
"Feed me."  
"No."  
"Feed me."  
"No."  
"Feed me."

Bella pursed her lips as she unlocked her front door

"One condition. Bring me... topping for the log and a bottle of wine."  
"That's two."  
"Take it or leave it."

As Damon parted his lips and showed off his fangs at her, she took a small step behind entering her building and the safety it provided. When Damon's forehead hit the invisible barrier with a thud, she winked and blew him a kiss.

Much to his surprise Damon laughed. It felt good to laugh again, he mused as he took off in vampire speed for his house after all. He had a few good bottles of wine and there was a delectable vintage human he was saving for special occasions.

Maybe he'd get her flowers too.

 **The end**

 **?**


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 30

It was night when the council met again. Liz had contacted Richard and with Mason's help managed to convince him that they didn't have the whole story. Richard wanted nothing more than to claim she was wrong, but one hard look from his baby brother shut him up.

"And what do you suggest? Not to welcome those freaks I hope."

He had sneered and Carol jumped up ready to back her husband's opinion. Privately Mason thought she looked like a wedding cake in her outfit but the mental image of her jumping out of a wedding cake caused his stomach to roll.

"Actually... Exactly that."

Jenna grinned. Meredith Fell opened her mouth to object but Mason spoke first.

"Face it bro, there just aren't enough humans from the founding families to protect this town. Despite all your efforts in adding more and more members that we've never even heard off previously, the numbers are dwindling or have you forgotten that Logan was turned into a vampire, under your very noses may I add?"

Richard's face turned red.

"Accepting the undead into the fold is unacceptable!"  
"But pushing a werewolf to be involved is?"

Mason responded with the truth. A needle could be heard if it fell at that moment as his statement shut everyone up. Mason grinned at his older brother, who looked murderous. Liz touched the gun that was tucked in one of the folds of her skirt, ready to pull it against the mayor.

"You know, accepting their side of it may not be entirely wrong."

Jenna said quietly.

"A vampire was posing as my dead niece for months, Richard. Pretty sure my sister and Grayson died because of her, too. If it wasn't for the 'freaks' figuring things out, a lot more people would have died."

Liz nodded, opting to out more of the truth while concealing Zach's disappearance and its reason.

"Matt Donovan wasn't Matt either. My own daughter and your son were friends with him, Carol. Do you really believe that not adding friends of us, who have proven themselves, to our numbers not only doesn't harm us, but actually helps our cause?"

Looking at Mason, Meredith Fell remembered him rushing to the hospital with his girlfriend after her nephew had been attacked. That girl was with them too. She vaguely remembered being told how to save the kid's life. Also it was Alaric Salzman who had killed her cousin when had been turned into a vampire and gone on a killing spree. Not one of the council, she thought. She spoke up.

"Didn't that friend of yours tell me how to save your nephew? She's not human either, is she?"

Jenna raised her brows at the lady doctor and kept mum. All eyes were on Richard, who sighed, knowing he had lost.

"Fine. But there have to be ground rules."

The rules were simple enough. A register for all vampires and werewolves, as per Mason's addition, that chose to stay in the town. Supernaturals from the founding families would be allowed to become members of the Founder's council as long as one human member of the same family was also in the council.

Privately Liz thought that was a good idea. Forcing at least one person per generation to stay human and procreate, was always good in her book.

The vervain in the town's water supply would stay there. The entire falls area would be out of bounds for humans and vampires, on the night of the full moon, in favor of the werewolves. Similarly, special blood drives would be held weekly at the hospital and their supplies would be strictly for vampire use.

"No more killing."

Richard had announced. Later Stefan would joke that killing wasn't necessary anyway, much to Damon's amusement.

"Lexi is good for him."

Bella had mused, only to be corrected by Damon

"Sex on tap is good for him, you mean."

The three friends shared an eye roll as Stefan blushed. With Liz's blessing, Mason had started a security service, employed his pack, and each and every supernatural scuffle was handled by them, letting Liz and her deputies to handle the normal events, for which they were better equipped anyway.

Stefan convinced Damon to invite Zach back to take care of the family house, and the newly reopened boarding house, as he would accept it was time to settle down, stop acting as a teenager and take his position in the family company.

Damon mocked him and his 'monkey suits' opting instead to follow his own passion and drink. Realizing that drinking all the time -and almost always alone- was pathetic, he took it one step further and opened his own bar.

"Will you name it 'Fangtasia' too?"

Lexi had laughed. Damon had threatened to come after her with a stake. Yet he did name his bar after the well known fictional one.

"Name's catchy!"

He explained, much to everyone's amusement. Stefan had caught him one night watching Tru Blood and wasn't above using it to get his big brother to behave. Plus it was funny seeing Damon grumble about Sookie and Eric not being endgame when they were perfect for each other.

Jeremy had taken to being an only child again fairly easily. With the days of drugs and smoking behind him, he was a really nice kid. Mason took him under his wing and Jeremy had shrugged his approval at Jenna's request that Mason moves in with them. Bella still stayed with him when Jenna had to work with an overnight stay, much to Mason's annoyance.

"Staying apart every now and then, you know, is good for a relationship."  
"Why does she have to work on the one night I'm not working?"

He had whined.

"Just be happy I'm not asking you to come with me when I visit my dad again."

she had laughed. After much deliberation Bella had sat down with her parents to confront, and later thank, them for everything they'd done for her. They'd both gone misty eyed as none wanted their relationship to really change.

Well, except one thing.

She asked if she could keep Charlie's name. She no longer remembered, or cared to remember, her real name. Charlie had agreed on one condition. Now that she no longer needed his family's protection, she'd be the one to offer it.

She had gladly accepted and it was Isabella Swan the name she put down in the brand new register, hidden in the headquarters of the Founder's Council.

 ** _\- - - Memories of a Past and a Future - - -_**

The gang met up at Damon's bar, that no one called by its real name, much to Damon's chargrin. Bella and Lexi were sitting in a low booth gossiping. Mason and Damon were arm wrestling, both grunting trying to take each other down. Stefan had been sent to make them drinks, a new talent he had discovered recently. He made mean cocktails.

Jenna reached the booth just as Stefan arrived with their drinks balanced on a tray.

"Tell your boyfriend to put more bathrooms. The line is crazy."

She instructed Bella, who laughed and called the instruction out to Damon. The vampire rolled his eyes, causing Mason to mock him by doing the same. Stefan put the tray down and walked purposely to them, where he passed their drinks under their noses.

Bella's compelled idea to use a small amount of blood in her food and drinks was a very good one, he had decided.

Predictably, Damon perked at the whiff of blood in his while Mason finally noticed the low cut shirt on his girlfriend and realized he wasn't the only male in the club doing the same thing. The arm wrestling competition was abruptly abandoned as both men shifted their focus elsewhere and, barely a blink of an eye later, were seating next to their girlfriends. Lexi passed the shot glasses around. Jenna raised hers in a toast

"To friendship."  
"To being at the right place at the right time."

Stefan added

"To us all."

Mason piped

"To memories."

was Lexi 's contribution

"To choices."

Damon shared while looking at Bella with a small smile, which she returned

"To the future."

she raised her own glass. They clinked glasses, a group of different species, bound together by friendship.

* * *

A/N: Yes, this time I am ending it. Hope you all enjoyed the ride and I hope to see you soon in my next story (so far untitled) that includes our favorite Originals. Catch you on the flip side!

~ T1gerCat


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